Dark Empire
by Scorpion
Summary: Can the team stop Necromon from wiping out all of Japan and the world?
1. Axis of Evil

Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon and unfortunately never will. Fox and Saban do. Necromon and his new henchmen are mine though, as is the altered plot of series 01. 

In my altered plot, there was a 5th Dark Master, Necromon. He nearly defeated the original Digidestined by casting them into another world thanks to Myotismon's dimension gate. However, to cut a long story short, they survived and came back to find their job had been made easier while they were gone. The Dark Masters, vying for absolute power, had gone into civil war! Puppetmon sided with Piedmon but Machinedramon and MetalSeadramon sided with Necromon. Piedmon seemingly ended up the sole survivor of the war but he ended up destroyed by MagnaAngemon as in the original story. (All this is part of another of my fics, one I haven't managed to finish yet! Sorry! I will sometime!)

This is a crossover of Digimon 02 + 03 and possibly more. I haven't decided yet. It takes place after the fall of MaloMyotismon and Oikawa's death. Peace reigns throughout the Digital World until one day…

****

Dark Empire

1: Axis of Evil

****

Izzy's home

Izzy Izumi had been working frantically on his laptop for several hours. It seemed like everything was going to be fine after MaloMyotismon's death, but 3 weeks later he'd no sooner got home and checked his e-mail when he received another message from Gennai. It had been very brief, not like Gennai at all. 

Need meeting tomorrow. Possible trouble ahead. Will investigate myself and fill you in then.

Gennai.

Since then, Izzy had been scanning every corner of the Digital World for any sign of trouble. He hadn't found anything. After all, there weren't any evil Digimon left now, or were there? Izzy started to send out e-mails to the others, feeling very uneasy. 

Dark Ocean

There had been celebrations all across the Digital World since MaloMyotismon's death. The Digidestined had seemingly pulled off the impossible; they'd rid the Digital World of all the evil threats and restored it afterward. But not everyone was happy at the outcome. Daemon, still marooned on a beach in the Dark Ocean realm, was seething at what had occurred. He had been able to observe events in the world outside when he strained his powers. So far, though, he hadn't been able to open a portal back. 

__

I should have killed that maggot Oikawa when I had the chance! he reflected sourly. _I could have made things turn out differently. _

Daemon now knew his chances of ruling the Digital World were virtually zero with Oikawa's spirit watching over it. The only fortunate thing in this was that the Dark Ocean had been unaffected. It was still the same cesspool of dark emotion and pure evil that it had always been and Daemon had been safe inside it. But that meant he was trapped here, not exactly what he'd had in mind! 

"The human wretches are pleased with themselves, aren't they?" 

Daemon spun around at the voice from behind him. "NECROMON?! But how?"

Necromon was a virus type and an ex-Dark Master. He was also presumed dead at the end of that conflict. He was practically a carbon copy of Devimon right down to the horns, skulls and the wings. He was red instead of black, however, his wings were in pristine condition and, like all the Dark Masters before him, he was a Mega. 

"Rumours of my deletion were greatly exaggerated! You didn't think Piedmon could kill me that easily, did you?"

Daemon was stunned. "I must admit I did. You'd been gone for so long I could assume nothing else."

"Well, you should be happy to see me still around. Especially since I have an attractive offer for you."  
"And what offer is that?"  
"How would you like to be one of the next Dark Masters?"

****

Tai and Kari's house

Gennai came through the Digiport right on schedule to find all the newer Digidestined waiting for him. 

"We all got the message, Gennai. What's wrong now?" Davis cut right to the chase.

Gennai didn't mince words. "This is going to make some of you uncomfortable. It concerns the Dark Ocean."  
"WHAT!" Ken and Kari exclaimed at the same time.

"It's the only area that Oikawa's sacrifice had no effect on. I think something's going on in there. In fact I know something is." He produced a laptop of his own. "I was running some scans of it just yesterday when I detected this."  
Izzy looked at the readings on the laptop. "A portal? From the Dark Ocean?"  
"That's what it looks like."

"Where did it go? Here or the Digital World?" TK broke in.

"Neither," Gennai was confused. "It went to a completely different world, don't ask me where or what for."  
"If it came from the Dark Ocean, it can't be good." Ken still had nightmares about that place, as did Kari. She would never forget the time when she was pulled there. 

"Man! How many more bad guys do we have to fight? I'm getting sick of them!" Davis snapped. 

"Could it be Daemon?" Yolei asked. "We never really beat him, remember?"

TK nodded. "If it is Daemon or someone new what do we do about it?"  
Ken didn't want to say it but he knew the answer. "There's only one way. We have to go there ourselves…"

****

Necromon's castle: Dark Ocean

"Welcome to my humble abode," Necromon cackled as he and Daemon entered. His 'humble abode' was a massive gothic castle built on the shores of the Dark Ocean, complete with moat, drawbridge, turrets and all. It looked like something out of a Dracula film.

"You built this here all by yourself? I must say I'm impressed."

"Oh, I didn't do it alone. I had considerable help but I'll tell you about that later."  
Daemon went straight to business. "First, tell me your plans. How do you intend to deal with the Digidestined and regain your hold on the Digital World?"

Necromon sneered. "I've used my time here wisely, my dear Daemon. I've done more than grind my teeth over the past, however painful it was. Ever since I found this ocean and used it to restore myself I've been experimenting. I found it has many more uses than I thought. In the right hands it can be a great weapon. It helped create the Digimon Emperor when it warped his digivice and it helped restore me when I was near to death, thanks to Piedmon and his treachery. But its greatest power is that of creation…"  
"Creation? You don't mean…?"  
"Exactly," Necromon opened the door to the castle's central courtyard. Hundreds of digimon were there. Tankmon, Mechanorimon, Guardramon, Airdramon, Flymon and others that Daemon didn't even recognise. "My own private army, mostly created through the dark energies of the sea outside plus the knowledge I…appropriated from the Digimon Emperor's wrecked base and a visit or two to Primary Village."

"Amazing." Daemon's eyes widened as the full meaning of Necromon's words sunk in. "You can leave here?"

Necromon snorted. "I've left and come back several times. It's quite easy to do when you can tap into this realm's power. I just happen to like it here. It usually matches my mood and I'm free to do my work here without worrying about prying eyes, especially those of Gennai and his accursed Digidestined!"

"How come you can do all this but I can't?" There was a lot of envy in Daemon's voice. He had been stuck here, impotent, for weeks.

"To be honest, I'm not sure. It could be to do with my nature and the attacks I was born with."

Daemon knew what he meant. Necromon was truly a Mega to be feared. His Necro Crusher attack rivalled Daemon's own Evil Inferno, but worse still was his Soul Drain attack. He could literally leach life force from anyone or any living thing with power. No doubt this had enabled him to tap into the Dark Ocean's energies.

"So tell me why you need my help."

"Bluntly speaking, I don't. At least it's not a 'must have' in my plan. I didn't anticipate you coming here. But it is a 'nice to have' part of it. After all, if I'm to re-establish the Dark Empire, I'm going to need at least 3 more Dark Masters. You certainly qualify, being one of the most powerful Dark Megas the Digital World has produced."

"I'm flattered," Daemon said. "But why should I? I play second fiddle to no-one."  
"No-one will play second fiddle," Necromon said sharply. "I don't intend to repeat the mistakes of the past. We will rule as equals and act as equals. Only that way can we defeat our enemies, agreed?"

"Fine. So you expect your army out there to take care of the Digidestined, yes?"  
"Oh no. They've been 'contracted' for another purpose. We can't take back the Digital World as it stands now. You and I both know that. Not with Oikawa's spirit and another world full of Digidestined shielding it."

"How then?"

"Digimon engineering isn't the only thing I've been experimenting with. Do you know there are hundreds, if not thousands, of worlds out there? Once you can open portals you can access them all. See where I'm going with this?"

Daemon certainly did. "If you can access them, you can conquer them!"

"WE can conquer them, my dear Daemon. Once we have a world of our own, or several if need be, we can harness whatever power is there and return even stronger. Then it will be a little more…interesting for the Digidestined!"

"Sounds good. But can we do it? How many Digimon have you created since you came here?"

"Oh, just several…thousand!"

Daemon and Necromon's laughter would have sent a chill up even the toughest spine.

****

On the beach

"This place hasn't changed much since last time," TK muttered.

"I still remember when we fought Airdramon here," Patamon agreed.

"Can we get a move on?" Ken asked. "I don't want to be here any longer than I have to!" 

Despite Gennai's help, it had still been a great strain on Ken to open a portal to the Dark Ocean.

"None of us do, Ken," Kari said, looking around warily and shivering. She didn't want to run into the Scubamon again. 

"Whoa! Talk about bad taste in houses! Look at that!"

Everyone looked up to see Davis pointing to Necromon's castle.

"Who would choose to live here?" Cody asked.

"No-one who's good, that's for sure!" TK growled.

"It must be Daemon! No-one else would be crazy enough to build a castle out here," Davis added.

Ken was sceptical. "I'm not so sure. Think about it, we only sent Daemon here a few weeks ago. Do you think he could have built that in such a short time?"

Davis was all fired up. "Well, whoever it is, let's go turn his lights out! Right, Veemon?"  
"Right!" With that, Davis and his blue Digimon charged down the beach towards the castle.

"He never changes, does he?" sighed Cody.

"Shouldn't we catch up with him, Ken?" Wormmon asked.

"You're right, let's go!"

****

Necromon's castle

Necromon and Daemon were now taking in the air (or the dark foul stuff that passed for air!) on the battlements.

"So, have you decided on a target yet?" Daemon was asking.

"Actually I believe I have. It's a very similar world to that of the Digidestined and it seems to have some digimon of its own. I made contact with one a few days ago, a small digimon by the name of Impmon. Not the sharpest blade available but certainly useful."  
"There are Digimon in that world too?" Daemon's eyes narrowed. "But then there might also be…!"

"There are but according to my source, the Digidestined there aren't as powerful as the ones we have to contend with here."

"They'd better not be!" Daemon growled. "I don't want to trade one set of enemies for a completely new set!"

"If we invade and deal with them quickly, they won't be a problem. Not with all the forces we have at our disposal."

"Good. Then we'll ensure that…NO!!!"

"What's wrong?" Necromon soon noticed what was wrong. "Damn them! I appreciate a challenge as much as the next Mon but of all the times to show up!"

"This time I'll put paid to them once and for all, as I promised!" Daemon snarled as he prepared to levitate himself down and confront the Digidestined.

"No, wait!" Necromon pulled Daemon toward an elevator in one of the castle turrets. "This'll be a good test for my new army!"

The elevator descended right to the basement of the castle where it opened out into a vast control room. Hahgarumon manned control consoles all around it and there was a large viewscreen at the top. They'd already detected the approach of the Digidestined.

"Alert Megadramon! I want him to prepare a fitting reception for them!"  
"Yes, my lord," the Hahgarumon were used to short tempered masters, having worked for Machinedramon in the past.

Soon Megadramon appeared on the screen. 

"Megadramon! We have unexpected company. Daemon and I will go out to meet them. Get our newest troops ready and move when I give the signal. Show them how we treat uninvited guests!"

"I never thought you'd ask!" the evil flying lizard Digimon grinned and then the screen went blank.

"Shall I do the honours and go out first?" Daemon asked. "I have a little score to settle, after all."  
"We both have, but go by all means," Necromon grinned. "Just don't destroy them too quickly!"

****

Outside the castle

The Digidestined had barely got near the castle when its drawbridge went down and a familiar hooded figure emerged.

Yolei shuddered. "Daemon! I knew it!"  
"Hello Digidestined," Daemon gloated. "I said I'd be back but I must admit I didn't expect you to come and visit me!"

"Can it, you big airbag!" Davis snarled.

"Ooh, touched a nerve did I? As a matter of interest why are you here? You're not foolish enough to want another fight with me, are you?"

"You know why we're here, Daemon," TK said forcefully. "We know about the portal so quit the acting!"  
"For once I'm innocent, I can't open any portals from here," Daemon admitted. "You'll have to talk to my new associate about that."

TK and Kari's jaws both dropped in shock as Necromon walked across the drawbridge and sneered in derision.

"Long time no see, eh? My, my, how you two have grown. All the more challenge for me!" 

"You?! But how?" Kari finally managed to blurt out. "You were destroyed 3 years ago!"

"I was badly damaged back then. But thanks to this ocean I survived. Sorry to disappoint you! Now that portal you were asking about? It was just me doing a little world hopping, nothing for you to be concerned about. I'm not looking to invade the Digital World or yours, or at least not today. So there's really nothing for you here now, is there? That is, unless you're here to be slaughtered and we'll gladly oblige!"

"Yeah right, as if we're going to believe that!" Davis retorted.

"Ah, the classic inverse between the size of the mouth and the size of the brain! Are you really ready to lose your head over this? You couldn't beat Daemon, remember? At least not without a little creative thinking in the portal department. How do you plan to fight both of us? Throw sand in our eyes?"

"How about we shut this big mouth up?" Davis pulled out his D3 and quickly digivolved Veemon to ExVeemon.

"Davis, wait!" TK warned, but not in time to stop ExVeemon attacking.

"V-Laser!" 

The attack struck Necromon head on but it didn't even faze him.

"Was that supposed to hurt me? I'm also a Mega, you cretin!"

"Oh man!" Davis' day was really starting to go downhill.

Necromon raised his hand and waved to someone behind him. "Megadramon, bring out the troops and dispose of these pests!"

"With pleasure!" the evil Ultimate replied as he soared over the castle walls. "Darkside attack!" 

The Digidestined were all sent sprawling as Megadramon's rockets exploded around them.

"Everyone digivolve all the way!" Davis ordered.

All the others pulled out their D3s and by the time Megadramon had come round for another pass he was facing Imperialdramon, Silphymon and Shakkoumon. 

"Hey, no fair!"

"It'll be fair, for us that is!" Daemon chuckled as he faced off against Imperialdramon. "Now where were we last time? Ah, yes. Evil Inferno!"

"Positron Laser!" Imperialdramon struck back just in time as the 2 attacks slammed into each other. 

"Haha! You can hold me off but you can't beat me," Daemon gloated.

"Yes, especially since I'm here too!" Necromon had flown up and behind Imperialdramon. "Necro Crusher!"

Necromon formed a huge red fireball and flung it at Imperialdramon who had no chance at all. He could block one Mega attack but not two and he was sent crashing to the ground.

"Justice Beam!"  
"Sonic Force!"

The others both aimed their attacks at Necromon but he dodged both by soaring higher with his wings. 

"I grow bored of this game! Troops, finish it!"

TK and Kari looked at the drawbridge with the same thought: _what now?_ The answer came swiftly. Ten more digimon crossed over. They looked like Tankmon but they were jet black instead of green, they were much bigger and seemed to be much better armoured. In addition, the 'arms' consisted of rotary cannons.

"Digidestined, meet the Gattlomon, the fully evolved form of Tankmon," Necromon announced proudly. "Their Gattling Striker will leave you spinning and if that's not enough, their Shadow Cannon will finish the job!"

"This doesn't look good," Yolei groaned.

"When did dark digimon ever look good?" Cody replied.

All ten Gattlomon raised both their cannon arms which started to spin. "Gattling Striker!"

Streams of fire flew into Shakkoumon who had no chance of blocking all the attacks. Peppered with Gattling energy, he collapsed and reverted back to Patamon and Armadillomon. 

Silphymon tried to cover them but soon found herself as the next target. She was faster and more agile than Shakkoumon but even she found herself in trouble. The longer the Gattlomon kept firing, the faster their barrels spun and increased their firing rate all the more. Plus it was impossible to dodge ten Ultimate attacks all at once and she soon met the same fate as Shakkoumon.

"Positron Laser!" Imperialdramon managed to snap off a shot at the Gattlomon in reply. He missed them but his shot threw up a cloud of dust, blinding the Gattlomon. 

"Evil Inferno!" 

Imperialdramon barely avoided the massive fire blast.

"You didn't forget about us, did you?" Daemon laughed.

"We've got to retreat!" TK screamed as he picked up Patamon. Things had never been this bad before. "Ken, open the portal!"

"Running away? That's a wise decision," Necromon gloated. "But can you do it before we get you? Necro Crusher!"

This time Imperialdramon was forced to block the attack before it hit Cody and TK.  
"Got it!" Ken had just finished opening the portal back. "Come on, move it or lose it!"

With Imperialdramon covering them, everyone turned to run. Unfortunately Kari tripped halfway and fell flat on her face just as 2 of the Gattlomon regained their vision. 

Only Davis saw Kari's plight and turned back to help. But this didn't escape the notice of the Gattlomon. 

"Gattling Striker!"  
Purely on instinct, Davis threw himself in the way to protect Kari. He succeeded but the cost was horrific as he was stitched by Gattling fire and ended up flat on his back, bleeding and unconscious. 

"DAVIS!!!" Imperialdramon was enraged. "Positron Laser!"

Both Gattlomon were blasted into oblivion. In the blink of an eye, Imperialdramon flew in, picked up all the Digidestined and flew out through the portal before anyone could stop him. 

Daemon cursed as the portal slammed shut. "We almost had them!"

"No harm," Necromon smiled. "We got an unexpected bonus with that battle. With their leader on his back or hopefully even dead…"  
"Yes, no more Imperialdramon! At least not for awhile!" Daemon realised.

"A little while is all we need," Necromon said confidently. "Come, we've a few more preparations to make."  
"Lead on," Daemon said eagerly.

****

Odaiba Park

Imperialdramon reverted back to Demiveemon and Minomon as soon as he came through the portal. He'd used up all his strength in the fight. He wasn't the only one.

"Davis!" Kari was beside herself. This was all her fault!

"Can you digivolve? We've got to get him to hospital?" TK asked his partner in desperation.

"I don't have any strength left," Patamon sighed. 

None of the other digimon had either. 

"I'll e-mail Izzy and get him to send help!" Yolei said as she opened her D-terminal.

"They're going to pay for this!" TK growled.

****

Necromon's castle: control room

"Prepare to open the portal," Necromon ordered.

"Where does it open from?" Daemon asked.

"The room next door. I think we'd better go," Necromon replied. "Inform Megadramon, Gigadramon and Arachnomon that they have command until I return. Also make sure that the special project gets priority attention."  
"At once, my lord. Have a good trip!" the Hahgarumon controllers turned back to the consoles.

"What's this special project?" Daemon asked.

"Oh, just a little hopeful scheme of mine. If anything starts to come of it I'll explain it all then. Come on, it's time you saw the world we're going to conquer first."

He led Daemon into another room. This room was empty except for a large gate at one end. It looked exactly the same as the one in Myotismon's old castle.

"You recreated the dimension gate!" 

"Yes. With an added bonus: I don't need the cards anymore. Thanks to the Dark Ocean I can open a portal anywhere. And there are 3 more rooms like this. When we're ready to launch the invasion, the whole force can come through at once."

"Excellent. You've really planned it all out."

"I hope so. Anyway, this trip we'll make sure of that. Once we are…the fun begins!"

The gate opened and they stepped through together.

****

Hypnos building

"Not again!" Riley sighed as 2 more red dots appeared on her tracking screen. 

Ever since Juggernaut's first phase had been implemented things had got worse, not better. More and more wild ones had bio-emerged and nearly all had come from the Juggernaut core.

__

Except these 2, she suddenly realised. Wherever they'd come from, it was from somewhere new.

Yamaki had just realised that fact too. "Well, wherever they came from they won't last long. Send out 4 tracers!"  
"4, sir?" Riley asked in surprise. 

"We've got our hands full with the ones from the Juggernaut core. We haven't time for anything else. This'll make sure of that. Since they're not from the core it should work."  
"Yes sir."

However, Yamaki couldn't have been more wrong if he tried. Soon after the tracers were launched the whole screen seemed to flare up and everyone was forced to look away.

"What was that?" Yamaki spluttered as he regained his vision.

"Some kind of energy surge," Riley replied. "It went right off the scale! I've never seen such power!"

"All the tracers have been destroyed!" the other controller reported. "What! Damn you!" Yamaki slammed his fist into another control panel.

__

He's definitely losing it, Riley thought to herself. Things were spinning out of control…

****

City park

"Anything else you conveniently forgot to mention?!" Daemon asked indignantly as they emerged from the portal.

"Don't blame me, nothing like that has ever happened before," Necromon replied evenly. "This certainly makes things more awkward. We destroyed whatever those things were but we can't risk bringing the army across until we find out more about this. I'm not going to risk losing troops before they've even arrived here."

"Then I suggest we find this Impmon of yours and ask him about it," Daemon suggested. "Then we'll deal with whoever or whatever was responsible."  
"Good idea," Necromon growled. "Whoever did this had better pray that I don't find them! I'll show them how I treat cowards!" 

TO BE CONTINUED…

Not much crossover this time, I know. Sorry about that but I had to put the background in. There'll be more of the Tamers' side next time, especially since they now have 2 Mega problems! That is, if you want a next part. Review and let me know.


	2. The Gathering Storm

Ok, there seems to be enough demand so here's part 2. Oh, by the way, Peter Kim was absolutely right on all counts but Necromon doesn't know the Tamers' abilities. He'll probably regret relying on Impmon for information! Having said that, this is set halfway through the Devas' arc in the Tamer series. They've reached Ultimate level but will that be enough against 2 Dark Megas?

* This is covered in another of my fics. One I haven't got around to finishing yet (I hopefully will when I get the chance! Work's become a curse the last few months!)

****

Dark Empire

2: The Gathering Storm

Tai and Kari's house

All the Digidestined, save for Mimi (still in America), Davis and Kari, had assembled at Gennai's request. Now that Davis was…indisposed, TK and Gennai had agreed on the need for everyone to be involved. Plus they didn't want to have to repeat the story several times.

"Necromon…that's a name I never wanted to hear again," Matt said grimly.

"You got that right, Matt," Tai growled. 

*Tai and Matt had special grudges against Necromon. He had sent the original Digidestined team to another world during the time of the Dark Masters. They'd escaped and returned to the Digital World, but Tai and Matt had never been the same afterwards thanks to a madman in that world by the name of Sephiroth. Thanks to him, Tai and Matt had fallen into that world's 'Lifestream' and had become infused with its energy. The effects had never worn off. They became super strong and super fit but the change had almost proved lethal to them. Although they'd defeated Sephiroth both still had nightmares from their 'transformation' and both were a little disappointed when they found that Necromon was apparently dead when they returned. Needless to say, however, now they weren't too happy to hear that Necromon wasn't as dead as they thought.*

"How did he survive? And what's he up to now?" Joe asked.

"I don't know how he survived. Like you I thought he was destroyed 3 years ago along with the other Dark Masters," Gennai said bitterly. "He's certainly not been idle. While we were fighting Ken and then MaloMyotismon, it looks like he was building a secret army of his own. But it doesn't look like he's preparing to invade the Digital World or here."  
Izzy considered this. "He's been opening portals but not here or the Digital World?" Then he realised. "He's going to invade another world!"  
"What good would that do him?" Tai wondered. 

"Don't you see, Tai? He can't conquer the Digital World thanks to Oikawa and us being here. But if he takes another world he can come back even stronger than he is now! He might even find a way of undoing what Oikawa did!"

"So how do we stop him?" Sora broke in. "We don't know what world he's gone to and we've got no way of following him."

"Not entirely," Gennai said. "I've got a way to follow him but there's a vital part I'm missing."  
"And that is?" Matt asked.

"I need precise co-ordinates for the portal. I need to know precisely which world he's gone to."

Yolei wasn't overjoyed. "How are we supposed to get those? Go back to the castle and ask?"

"We go back to the castle, sneak in and find out for ourselves," TK said grimly.

"I think I can help you get inside thanks to the information you got on your D3's," Izzy said.

Just then Kari arrived back at the apartment.

"How's Davis?" Yolei asked.

"He'll live but he's going to be down for awhile," Kari said. "He's still in good spirits though."

That was an understatement. Davis was furious that he was out of the game. "Tell TM not to get too cosy! I won't be gone too long!" was the last thing he'd said to Kari before she had left.

"I guess we're needed again now Davis is out, right Matt?" Tai guessed.

"Yeah, with him gone our digimon are the only ones that can go Mega," Matt replied.

"I talked to Azulongmon about that," Gennai told them. "He said he'll release all the energy he can spare. It should be enough for Agumon and Gabumon to reach Mega level. I don't think it'll be enough to get Omnimon back though."  
"I hope that's enough," Tai added. "So when do we leave for the castle?"  
Izzy broke in as he finished analysing the castle readings. "Only 2 or 3 of us should go, Tai. I can't guarantee getting any more than that past the castle's sensors."  
"Let me go with Cody and Ken, Tai," TK suggested. "If we get into trouble we can still DNA digivolve and get out again."  
"Ok, but be careful. We can't lose anyone else!" Tai warned.

****

Tamer World: Under the city 

Impmon was sitting by himself in a dark corner of the sewers, mired in self-pity and self-loathing. He'd been humiliated and beaten by Indramon and now he was a laughing stock. He had tried his best but it seemed there was no way to digivolve without a human. But as much as Impmon wanted to digivolve he'd sooner be dead than join up with the 'loser patrol' of humans!

"I thought I'd find you here," Impmon looked up to see Necromon coming out of the shadows. "Yes, I saw the fight. I, or should I say we, were looking for you and, well you know the rest. You needed this realm's Digidestined to bail you out, how humiliating!"

"Are you sure this digimon can help us?" Daemon emerged from the darkness close behind. 

"Uh, who's this? Nice outfit!" Impmon quipped, though he was nervous at the sight of Daemon. 

"Daemon is a new associate of mine. You'd do well not to get on the wrong side of him."

"So, uh, what do you want with me now?" Impmon said. "I'd thought I'd seen the last of you."

"You thought wrong," Necromon said coldly. "Why did you run from me the first time?"

Their first meeting had been a brief one. Necromon had stumbled across Impmon on one of his jaunts while Impmon was being his usual self, attacking people on park benches with a few bada-booms. Impmon had run off before Necromon could gain much information but he had resolved to find him again. 

"Hey I thought you were after my data!" Impmon retorted. "It's bad enough with the loser patrol and their digi-rats and those humans in the tower…"  
"What?!" that had piqued Necromon's interest. "What do you mean: the humans in the tower?"  
"Geez, for such a big digimon you're pretty clueless, ain't you? There's a bunch of humans that keep snatching digimon off the streets and taking them to that big tower in the centre of town. You can't miss it. It's the biggest block with 2 smaller towers on top."

"Interesting…" 

"They came after you too, huh?"  
"Not exactly, but I've a feeling they may have been responsible for a little trouble I had recently."  
"How do you know all this?" Daemon asked with a scowl.

"Hey, hey take it easy! I've been in that tower once or twice. Pretty fancy set-up. They can take out some digimon before they even get here!"

This confirmed Necromon and Daemon's suspicions.

Necromon grinned nastily. "Well, it's time for a few changes around here." He pulled out a communication device. It enabled him to contact his home base in the Dark Ocean no matter where he was. "Lock on to my location and send through package number 1!"  
2 minutes later a small portal opened and a small case dropped through. Necromon picked it up and checked it. "Good. No damage, they obviously only target digimon and living things. Which will be their undoing!"

He turned back to Impmon. "Since you're obviously tired of being the 'loser that can't digivolve', I'll make a deal with you. I want you to sneak back into that tower…"  
"WHAAAAT!!!" Impmon looked like he was close to a heart attack. "Forget it! I may be down but I certainly don't want to be out, capisce?"  
"Oh? What a pity, it was such a good offer I had for you too. Oh well, if you want to remain at this pitiful level of power that's fine by me…"  
All of a sudden, Impmon changed his tune. "You can make me digivolve? Why didn't you say? What do you want me to do?"

"I thought you weren't interested," Necromon teased.

"If you can get me to digivolve, I'll do anything. Short of getting myself killed!" Impmon replied with force.

"Anything, eh? All right, here's the deal. Slip into that building again. You've seen how everything operates in there, right?"

Impmon nodded.

"Good." Necromon opened the case and brought out a computer disk. "Once you sneak in, I want you to upload this into their system. Once it's done, return here. We'll be waiting for you. Succeed and digivolution will be yours."

Impmon grinned. His dream was finally within reach! "You can count on me."

"I hope so," Necromon's expression turned nasty. "Because if you fail, I'll finish the job that Indramon started on you! You capisce that!?"

"I get it! I'm going, I'm going!" Impmon scampered away at the rate of knots.

"Aren't we relying on him a little too much?" Daemon asked.

"Even if he fails, nothing's lost. I've got plenty more weapons where that came from."

"What was on that disk?"   
"Oh, just a little something I've been cooking up for such an occasion. We're well prepared to fight all kinds of enemies. If all goes as planned, this city will be ours and the human filth in that tower will never know what hit them!"

"What of the Digidestined of this world? Or the Tamers as we now know they're called."

"Yes, they're stronger than I anticipated," Necromon admitted. "Serves me right for relying on bad information. These Tamers certainly have more potential than their counterparts back home. They can do much more for their digimon than the Digidestined ever could. But, for all that, they are only 3. What are they going to do against our army?"

Daemon seemed satisfied with that. "Nonetheless we should deal with them at the first opportunity, should we not?"  
Necromon nodded. There was no sense in risking unpleasant surprises. "When the army comes across, we'll make them a priority target."

****

City Park

Takato Matsuki was in a good mood. He had just destroyed another Deva and Guilmon had finally reached Ultimate level! 

"So Takato, do I rule or what? You'd have been dead without my card, right?"  
Takato sighed. The only damper on the whole thing was that it had been Kazu's blue card that had enabled Guilmon to reach Ultimate and Kazu was taking every opportunity to remind him about it. 

"So you've told me about 200 times already," Takato eventually said.

"Well, I'd better be around for all your fights from now on then!"  
Takato rolled his eyes. Kazu never seemed to grasp that these were _real_ battles with _real _digimon and they were facing death every time they fought. 

"Yeah, but can we stay out of the line of fire next time?" Kenta was more cautious, even if he did strangle the cat every time he tried singing.

"There's no guarantees in battle," Rika Nonaka said coldly. Then she smiled slightly. "Or perhaps you're not up to real battles?"  
"Hey, I resent that! Give me a real digimon partner and I'll rock!" Kazu retorted.

"Seriously though it's not as fun as it looks," Henry Wong was always the most serious of the Tamers.

"They did help, Henry. Momentai!!" Terriermon said as he perched on Henry's head.

Takato yawned. "Well, I'll see you later, guys. I'm pretty tired." For some reason he felt just as drained as Guilmon after the fight with Indramon. Each Deva they encountered seemed to be stronger than the last. He hoped the next one would take its time in coming. He could use a rest from battle. 

He never saw Daemon and Necromon watching him from the shadows. 

"Why don't we kill them now?" Daemon snarled.

"Patience, Daemon. You want to advertise our presence here? You'll get the chance to deal with them soon enough…"

****

Digital World: Gennai's home

Gennai's house still looked the same as it did 3 years ago when the original Digidestined had visited it. But for some reason, Gennai was nowhere to be seen when Tai, Matt, Kari and Yolei arrived.

"You're sure he told us to meet him here, Yolei?" Tai asked.

"I'm positive," Yolei said, confused.

"We're down here!" It was a voice from the back of the house.

"We?" Matt wondered who Gennai had with him as they walked through the living room to the back where they found a staircase. They went down and found themselves in a workshop, or rather a cross between a workshop and a library. There were books piled high in one corner of the room and tools and a workbench in another. There was also a heavy metal shutter, just like in a garage, next to the workbench. 

Gennai was sitting at the workbench waiting for them. "Good, you're here. Just the 4 of you?"  
Tai shrugged. "Ken, TK and Cody are still trying to get into the castle. Everyone else is waiting for them back home."  
Gennai nodded. "Come on, everyone else is next door."  
Gennai pushed a button and raised the shutter. Everyone gaped in shock.

A massive vehicle stood in the next room. It consisted of a massive metal dome built on tank treads. 

"The order's prototype MDB. What do you think?" Gennai said proudly.

"MD what?" Tai asked.

"MDB: Mobile Dimensional Base. The order was building this in case of a threat from outside the Digital World. I stored it here to prevent Piedmon or anyone else stealing it. Something I should have done with the tags and crests come to think of it."

As Gennai finished talking, a ramp was lowered from the side of the dome and 2 very familiar digimon ran out.

"Tai!"  
"Matt!"  
Tai and Matt grinned as they ran to meet their digimon partners. "Good to see you again, Agumon!"  
"Gabumon!"  
"Let's get aboard," Gennai suggested. "We've still a few last minute details to take care of."  
"Did Gennai tell you everything?" Matt asked his partner as they climbed into the base. 

"Yes. Necromon and Daemon together, I can't think of much worse," Gabumon said gloomily.

"Can we beat those 2 together?" Agumon asked in worry. "Imperialdramon couldn't beat Daemon on his own!"  
"Hey, we'll think of something!" Tai said fiercely. 

2 of Gennai's 'clones' were waiting inside the dome that housed the control centre. Ilya and Jose had come over to help with the final preparations. 

"Is everything ready?" Gennai asked.

"Almost but the power grid still has a few bugs in it," Jose said, checking one of the many control consoles.

"It's those relays. They're acting like they ate some bad borscht!" Ilya added unhappily.

"Change them then, we've got to be ready to leave as soon as the others get those co-ordinates," Gennai warned. He wasn't optimistic. Chances were the next time Necromon used his portals he would be launching his invasion.

Just then Kari received e-mail from TK:

We're inside the castle. No sign of Necromon or Daemon here. Must have gone through a portal somewhere. We'll try and get the co-ordinates next time they use it.

TK

****

Hypnos building: lowest level

By now, Impmon had managed to sneak inside the building through its ventilator shafts. He was wondering why no one had come looking for him; they had on the last occasions he'd sneaked in for a look. What he didn't know was that Yamaki, Riley and the other controllers had their hands full monitoring the battle with Leomon and the latest Deva, Kunbiramon. 

He spotted an untended computer terminal, crept past Henry's Dad and the other technicians who were too buried in their work to notice anything, and slipped the disk into it. He smiled with malice as he started uploading. Finally he would get to digivolve and these humans would pay for every insult and indignity they'd ever caused him!

A small beep brought him back to reality. UPLOAD COMPLETE, the screen read. Impmon ejected the disk and fled back into the ventilators.

"Merry Christmas, suckers! Hahaha!"

****

Necromon's castle

Sneaking in had been easier than they thought, largely thanks to Izzy and Digmon. Izzy thought they wouldn't have much surveillance underground and, thanks to Digmon and his Rock Cracking technique, they'd been able to take advantage and drill in under the castle. Now they were on a landing overlooking the control room as TK sent his e-mail. 

"I hope we don't have to stay much longer," Cody whispered. "The longer we stay the more likely we are to get caught!"

As he said that, however, one of the Hahgarumon spoke up. "Lord Megadramon, Lord Necromon is calling again!"

Necromon appeared on the screen. "Our little ally claims he succeeded in his mission. I want to test that. Send over 5 digimon, it doesn't matter what type."  
"At once," Megadramon replied. He summoned 2 Gattlomon and 3 Tankmon. "Get to Portal room 2. Lord Necromon requires your presence."  
"Here's our chance," Ken whispered. "We've got to follow them!"  
"Ok, quietly," TK warned. It hadn't been easy sneaking around the castle corridors with the amount of digimon that were here. Luck was still going their way though and they managed to follow the 5 'volunteers' undetected. 

TK recognised the portal gate instantly: another direct copy of Myotismon's gate.

"We're ready to cross," the lead Gattlomon reported.

"Stand by," came the reply from the control room.

As the gate opened TK, Cody and Ken all raised their D3's and scanned the portal.

"Let's get out of here!" Cody advised as the portal closed again. 

No one argued with him.

****

City sewers

Necromon smiled as the 5 digimon he'd asked for came through the portal.

"Excellent. You had no trouble crossing? No ill effects?"  
The lead Gattlomon seemed confused. "No, my lord. Should there have been?"  
Necromon grinned even more. "It looks like my little trick worked. They weren't detected!"

Daemon was happy. "So if this little posse came across safely then the army can now do the same!"  
"Yes, and they won't see us coming!"

Impmon spoke up. "Uh, I hate to ruin your moment but can I…"

"Oh yes. I hadn't forgotten. You kept your word and so will I." Necromon reached for his communicator again. "Open a portal. Transport back for 1 only. On arrival take him to the enhancement chambers."  
Another portal opened up. 

"You've earned yourself digivolution, a place in my army and in the history books, Impmon! I'll look forward to seeing you again when you're improved."  
Impmon grinned in anticipation and stepped through the portal. 

The portal had no sooner closed than another message came through Necromon's communicator. 

"My lord! Wonderful news! We think we've found the data templates you requested for the special project!"

"You've what?" Necromon could barely contain his excitement. "Are you sure?"  
"As sure as we can be, my lord."  
"If you're right, how long will it take you to implement the project?"  
"A few hours at least. It'll take time to restore something of this magnitude."

"I realise that. Put all your efforts into it. Contact me again when there's any developments."

"Why the delay? What is this special project?" Daemon asked impatiently.

"If the project succeeds, victory here will be absolutely assured. Don't worry Daemon. It'll mean only a few more hours' wait. Besides I'm told the best time for an invasion is at dawn. Who are we to break with tradition?"

****

Gennai's house: inside the MDB

"We've got the co-ordinates!" Kari said excitedly as she received another e-mail message from Izzy.

"Right, tell everyone to get down here. We've got to go now!" Tai said. 

20 minutes later TK, Cody and Ken and their digimon were all in the control centre staring in awe.

"I'll bet Izzy is going to regret not coming!" Cody said.

"The others aren't joining us?" Matt seemed puzzled.

"Not yet. Sora said someone should stay behind and make sure things are ok back here," TK revealed. "Anyway, Davis will need someone to fill him in when he gets back on his feet."

"In theory we've got enough power in this thing for several jumps," Gennai said. "We'll can come back for Davis later. All right, get strapped in and we'll get going."

Everyone took a seat and pulled down a heavy safety harness that wouldn't have looked out of place on theme park rides.

"Are these really necessary?" Ken asked, somewhat worried.

"Just a precaution," Gennai said. "I don't know how bumpy this ride's going to be. But don't worry, the order spent years perfecting this."

"How many times have you used this before?" Cody ventured.

Gennai grinned. "We're the first!"

"WHAT!!!" everyone had time to scream before Gennai pressed the start button.

****

Necromon's castle: breeding chambers

"How is the special project going?" Gigadramon asked as he entered the room. He hoped it was going well. He needed results he could take to his brother and to Necromon.

"See for yourself," a Hahgarumon controller replied.

This was a room that was normally filled with breeding tanks where the new dark digimon would be grown, formatted and digivolved accordingly. Now most of the tanks were gone, they'd been replaced with 2 enormous ones. Dark Ocean water was being pumped into both. Through the blackness, Gigadramon saw a glint of metal in one. Looking closer, he saw it was a large metal foot.

"When will they be fully reconstructed?" 

"About 4 hours, assuming there are no glitches."  
"There'd better not be!" Gigadramon threatened. "The invasion begins in 6 hours. This will be our greatest moment!"

****

Just outside the city

The MDB had materialised in a clearing in the woods near the city. Unfortunately it was now the dead of night.

"It's 5:00 AM here now," Gennai said apologetically. 

"How come? It was daytime back home!" Tai grumbled. "How are we going to find Daemon and Necromon now?"  
"Are you sure this is the right world, Gennai?" Cody asked.

"Positive. This is the world those digimon came to," Gennai was puzzled. "Odd that he hasn't started the invasion yet. Hold on, I'll try and get an idea of exactly where we are."

"How can you do that?" Matt asked.

"If there's any computer networks on this world, I can tap into them from here."

Soon Gennai had a map of the area on his screen. "Looks like this world's practically a mirror of yours. Same country, same area, same technology…"  
"But different world," TK finished.

"Exactly. Good sort of place for Necromon to start."

"So where is Necromon?" Tai asked impatiently.

Gennai tapped in a few more calculations. "According to this, he should be in the city that's close by. At least that's where his portals went."  
"What's the plan, Tai?" Ken wondered.

"The invasion hasn't started yet, right? So we've got to find Necromon and Daemon and take them out before they can start it."  
"That's a tall order, Tai," TK said.

"It'll be a taller order to take them on and their entire army," Ken pointed out.

"Since no one's got any better ideas, let's go to the city and find them. If their army gets here…" Tai let his words hang. Everyone knew what he meant. If that happened, their chances of winning were almost non-existent. With that in mind, they hurried out of the MDB and headed for the city.

****

City sewers

At 6:00 AM, Necromon received another message from the castle. 

"Some good news and bad news, my lord."  
"I'll have the bad first," Necromon said.

"We detected a portal from the Digidestined world to where you are now. It's safe to assume they've crossed over and are now looking for you."  
"Irritating but hardly unexpected. Besides, in just over…2 hours, they won't be much of a problem when the invasion starts, will they? So what's the good news?"  
"The special project was a complete success."

"Haha! It'll be good to see those 2 again. How are they?"  
"Eager to see you and even more eager for battle. Shall I send them across with the main army?"  
"Yes, do that. Get the troops ready and make sure everything proceeds on schedule."

"So the Digidestined are here?" Daemon wasn't happy at that news.

Necromon shrugged. "With Gennai helping them I expected them to show up sooner or later. Well, all the performers are now on stage. How convenient, we can now destroy them all in one blow!"  
"True, but what if they link up with the Tamers? That might become a problem."  
"We must ensure they do not, or at least not until it's too late," Necromon said. "Do you think you can handle that? I have to plan the invasion of the city."

"I'll handle it with pleasure!" Daemon sneered. "Consider them as good as dead!"  
Necromon smiled as Daemon left. Even if the Tamers did survive Daemon's attack and allied with the Digidestined it wouldn't matter too much. By the time those children joined up, his army would be on the streets. As he had said to Daemon, all the performers were now on stage. The dance tune, however, was about to change. It would be interesting to see if they could all adapt to it and survive. Necromon doubted that very much…

TO BE CONTINUED

Yeah, I can hear you cursing me for leaving you in suspense again! Will the Digidestined be able to help the Tamers in time? And who are these 'special project' digimon? You'll have to wait until next time! (Meanwhile keep reviewing with suggestions/comments. I'll add part 03 as soon as I can).

****

  



	3. Invasion!

Finally, the wait's over. Sorry I can't write quicker, but this part was more difficult than I thought, work's been hell…Oh enough with the excuses already! The big day has arrived with the Tamers and Digidestined together against Necromon's invasion…

****

Dark Empire

3: Invasion!

Over the city: 6:00 AM

"Any luck, Yolei?" Kari asked hopefully as they flew over the city together.

"No, none," she replied grimly from the back of Aquilamon. "If we don't find them soon…"

"Wait, I'm getting an e-mail message."

Ken and I have found something interesting. Get down to us now.

TK

They landed quickly in an alley out of sight, had their digimon revert to Rookie level and emerged onto the main streets. Kari quickly spied the others looking into a shop window.

Yolei was amazed. "This place is about to be invaded and they're window shopping?! I thought we would be the ones to do that!"

"Let's find out," Kari said neutrally as they ran over to join the others.

"So you haven't found them?" Yolei challenged.

"No. But check this out," TK pointed into a shop window. He was pointing specifically to a stack of cards marked Digimon Card Game.

"Digimon cards?" Kari's eyes widened. "Does that mean…?"  
"We don't know for sure if there's any digimon here yet," Tai broke in. 

"Gennai seems to think so though," TK added. "I sent him an e-mail before I warned you. Look at what he sent back."

What you've found, combined with the readings I've been getting here, suggests that there are digimon indigenous to this realm. This also suggests that there may be local Digidestined. If you can't find Necromon and Daemon, I suggest you look for them. We're going to need a lot of help if we can't stop the invasion. 

Gennai

"So what do we do?" Matt asked.

"If there are any Digidestined around here I say we find them!" Tai said. "If Necromon and Daemon find them first…"  
"Enough said, let's find them!" Ken agreed. "But where should we look?"  
"The school would be a good start," Kari suggested.

"But it's still too early yet," Yolei pointed out. 

"Well, let's find the school and then start from there anyway," Kari insisted.

TK agreed. "She's right. We haven't anything else to go on and we don't have much time left."

Tai nodded. "He's right. I think we might have one chance to stop this. If there are Digidestined around here then Necromon will probably know that too so…"

Matt caught on. "So when he tries to take them out, we go in and take him out!"

"Exactly. Find them as fast as you can, this might be our last chance!"  


****

City Park: 8:00 AM

Takato and Henry were making their usual stop at Guilmon's hideout before they left for school. As most Digidestined or Tamers would have said, there is nothing more dangerous than a digimon that hasn't eaten. Takato had learned that the hard way once. He didn't intend to repeat the mistake. 

"Man! I wish we didn't have to go to school right now," Takato was complaining as he handed out breakfast to Guilmon and Calumon, who was taking time out from his near constant search for fun. "With 5 Devas still out there I'm not sure it's a good idea."

For once, Henry couldn't have agreed more. "We'll just have to hope they don't attack while we're stuck in class."

"Oh I wouldn't worry too much about class. You're not likely to have one ever again!"  
Takato and Henry whirled round to see Daemon glaring at them malevolently outside the small stone house.

Takato managed to find his voice first. "Who, or what, is that?"  
Henry pulled out his digivice. "I can't get a reading on him!"

"I'll tell you who I am," Daemon chuckled. "I'm your executioner!"

****

Necromon's castle

A loud siren had started sounding through the castle as the invasion hour approached.

"Attention! The invasion will begin shortly! All digimon selected for lead army are to report to portal gates immediately. All mechanised ground digimon: proceed to Gate 1. All dinosaur and non-mechanised ground digimon: proceed to Gate 2. All aerial digimon: proceed to Gate 3."

"It's time, brother," Gigadramon said eagerly as the Hahgarumon controller finished his announcement.

"I know. I've waited so long for this!" Megadramon then turned to the two massive figures in the shadows behind him. "Haven't you, my lords?"  
"Indeed we have," one replied. "I haven't been rat catching in awhile!"  
"Well, here's your chance! We'd better get down to Gate 4 if we're to go through on time."

"All systems charged," another controller reported. "Now awaiting signal to start invasion."

****

City Park

"Pyro Sphere!"

Guilmon's fireball struck Daemon head on but he didn't even seem to notice.

"You call that firepower? This is firepower! Evil Inferno!"

Daemon unleashed a tidal wave of flame from his hands.

Moving like the wind, Henry pulled out a card.

"Digi-Modify…Wargreymon's Brave Shield Activate!"  
The shield formed in front of all of them just in time and blocked out the attack.

"Looks like we need more power!" Henry said.

"Right!" Takato pulled out his cards.

"Digi-Modify…Digivolution Activate!"  
Calumon's forehead started to glow and shot out energy.

When the Brave Shield went down, Daemon saw he had new opponents: Growlmon and Gargomon.

"Good! I was starting to think this would be too easy. But I suppose things haven't changed that much!"

Takato saw red. "You think so, huh? Well, take this! Digi-Modify…Power Activate!"

"Pyro Blaster!" 

"Gargo Laser!" 

Both shots hit Daemon at once and he seemed to vanish in a massive ball of flame.

"Yeah! What a shot!" Takato punched the air in celebration. It was short-lived though. The flames cleared and Daemon stood there completely unharmed.

He snickered as he dusted himself down. "Try again when you're serious!" 

"You want serious? Here it is! Diamond Storm!"   
Renamon had run in from the trees and was giving it all she had. But against Daemon, it wasn't much.

"Ooh, stop it! That tickles! Hahaha!"

Rika ran out of the trees behind Renamon.

"Whoa! This looks like a big one!"

"He is! Nothing's hurt him so far," Takato said worriedly. "He seems familiar somehow…"  
"It doesn't matter, look what I've found!" Henry had discovered another blue card. "Digi-Modify…Matrix Digivolution Activate!"  
"Here we go again!" Calumon's forehead started to glow again.

"Rapid Fire!" 

Daemon suddenly found himself under attack from a volley of fast shots.

Rapidmon quickly followed up on the attack. "Tri-Beam!"

A green beam of pure energy slammed into Daemon producing another huge explosion.

Rapidmon was jubilant. "Haha! He shoots! He…"

"…Strikes out! Gwahahaha!" Daemon wasn't just unhurt. He had now grown to city-wrecking size and he towered over the treetops. 

"And that was your third strike, I believe. That means you're out! Evil Inferno!"

Daemon unleashed another fire wave, baking the ground below. Takato was blown off his feet and ended up flat on his back in the stone house. When he got up again, things were not looking good. Henry had been flung into the wall of the stone house and was unconscious. Rika's arm had been burned so she was also out of the game and all their digimon were knocked out and back at Rookie level.

Daemon chuckled. "Your digimon are strong. You must have been through many fights. But since when could Champions and Ultimates defeat a Mega?"

__

Oh man! A MEGA? Takato's worst fears were coming true. This one was more powerful than all the Devas they'd faced and now they were at his mercy. Even worse, that seemed to be a quality that he didn't have much of. 

"Now, as much as I've enjoyed this, I must conclude this game. My time is too important." He raised his arm again. "Evil…"  
"Terra Force!"  
Daemon didn't have time to launch his attack before an immense fireball slammed into him from behind. 

"If you want a good fight then you've got one!" Tai snarled as he descended from the sky on the back of Wargreymon. 

"Make that two!" Matt and Metalgarurumon were seconds behind. 

"If there's one thing I hate most about you Digidestined it's your timing! Evil Inferno!"

"Metal Wolf Claw!" 

"Terra Force!" 

Daemon's attack was powerful but it wasn't powerful enough to withstand 2 other Mega attacks, especially if one was ice-based. Their blasts tore through and slammed into Daemon's midsection. 

"Having some trouble, Daemon?"

Necromon had come up from the sewers and was now flying into the fray. 

"Nothing I can't handle!" Daemon snarled as he prepared another attack.

"Save it. It's time for the main event," Necromon said with a cold smile. "Do you really want to miss that?"  
Daemon regained his sense of humour. "No I don't. But we need to lose the problems here first."  
"Consider it done! Necro Crusher!"

"Evil Inferno!"

This time it was Wargreymon and Metalgarurumon that were forced to dodge. By the time they'd recovered, Necromon and Daemon were flying away at Mach speed. 

Before Tai and Matt could think of pursuing, Necromon grabbed his communicator and said one word into it.

"Invade!"

****

Necromon's castle

"We have the signal! Open all portals!"

"All portals open. The invasion is a go!"

With that, 1000 digimon of various types and ranks went through the dimension gates. 

****

City Park

"Oh man! They're getting away again!" Tai raged.

"It could be worse, Tai. We saved this world's Digidestined from becoming pot roast!" Matt said pointing at the ground. 

Takato was staring up in disbelief. Then he noticed Rika's condition.

"Rika! Are you ok?"  
Rika was still nursing a badly burnt arm. "I'm ok. But who are these guys?" 

Takato was about to ask them but he didn't get the chance.

"Matt, I've got news for you. Things are worse! LOOK!"

Hovering in the sky Matt and Tai could see everything. Things couldn't have looked worse.

3 massive digital fields, larger than anything previously seen, had appeared on 2 sides of the city and in the air. 400 mechanised digimon came through on one side. There were Gattlomon, Tankmon, Mechanorimon, Guardromon and the like. On the other side of the city were 400 Tuskmon, Mammothmon, Tyrannomon, Darktyrannomon, and Drimogemon amongst others. 200 Kuwagamon, Flymon, Airdramon and Snimon appeared out of the aerial portal around Necromon and Daemon. Megadramon and Gigadramon were among this group too. 

But that wasn't the worst of it either. Last and certainly not least out of the aerial portal were 2 huge and very familiar digimon. One was a metal sea serpent with a nose of hard iron, the other a metal dinosaur with 2 great cannons on his back and skulls at his kneecaps. The old Dark Masters, Metalseadramon and Machinedramon were back!

"Good to see you again!" Necromon smiled. "This is the result of the special project, Daemon. Think it was a waste of time now? The Dark Masters are whole again!"  
"Enough talk, more action!" Metalseadramon screamed. 

"I think a little destruction is in order to celebrate our return," Machinedramon added.

"Then you won't be disappointed," Necromon said. "We've got a whole world to do with as we please. That is, as soon as we get rid of those nuisances down there!"

Takato, Rika, Matt and Tai all swallowed hard as the 4 dark Megas stared at them. 

It was at this moment that TK and the others arrived on the scene. They'd all seen the aerial invaders arrive and knew that the others couldn't be far behind.

"Looks like we blew it this time," Cody said miserably.

"Machinedramon and Metalseadramon back too, and I thought things couldn't get any worse!" TK groaned.

"At least we saved them," Kari pointed out, looking at the Tamers, who were staring in shock at the Digidestined.

Takato and Rika had finally recognised their rescuers. After all, they'd seen them on TV plenty of times. Now they were here in the flesh and Takato wondered whether he was hallucinating!

"Uhhh…."

"Henry!" Takato hurried over to his friend who was getting to his feet slowly. He hadn't broken anything but a small river of blood was flowing from his forehead where he'd hit the house wall.

"I'm ok, Takato," Henry then saw the Digidestined. _That digimon must have hit me harder than I thought!_

"You're not seeing things, it's really them!" Takato whispered.

"We'd better not tell them anything just in case…" Henry struggled to find the words.

"Don't worry, I've got it!" Takato reassured him. 

Tai stared grimly at the evil horde above. "TK, take our new friends over there with you and get out of here!"

TK didn't like the sound of that. "What are you going to do?" 

Matt answered for Tai. "What do you think, TK? Someone's got to cover your backs. Know any other digimon that can stand up to dark Megas?"

"But, 2 against 4?" Yolei was just as worried about this idea.

Tai gritted his teeth. "Just go!"

TK understood. They had no choice. "We'd better escape underground. Cody?"  
"Right!" Cody pulled out his D3 and armor Digivolved Armadillomon to Digmon.

"I'll help with that," Takato said as he helped Guilmon to his feet. "Digi-modify…Digmon's drill Activate!"

Guilmon's claws became drills and he started drilling into the earth beside Digmon. 

The sight stunned the Digidestined.

"Let's go!" Rika jolted them out of it as she ran down the hole. 

Henry picked up Terriermon and followed close behind.

"Matt, you sure you won't come with us?" TK practically pleaded.

"I'll see you later, TK," Matt replied firmly.

TK sighed in despair and then followed the others underground.

"Scared, Tai?" Matt asked as he stared at the new Dark Masters. 

"Now that you mention it, yeah."

Matt shrugged. "Oh well, who wants to live forever?"  
"I would," Tai joked. "But whatever. Let's do it!"

Necromon and his dark friends had watched as the others escaped.

"Hey, they're getting away!" Metalseadramon snarled angrily.

"The most important ones haven't," Necromon smiled. "We'll deal with them now. Oh, hold on, I almost forgot."

Necromon reached for his communicator and pressed 2 buttons. One gave a signal to the rest of his force to start attacking, the other would guarantee that his human enemies here would be incapable of stopping them…

****

Hypnos building

Riley was suspicious. They'd detected no wild ones at all since the 2 powerful ones yesterday. Although Yamaki was celebrating that, she didn't like it at all. She had no evidence that was something was wrong, it was just intuition. 

A minute later, one of the other technicians proved her right.

"Sir, you'd better take a look at this!" 

Yamaki came over wondering what the hell was wrong. The technician's face was as white as a sheet. 

For good reason as it turned out. The technician, bored with a day of no action at all, had turned on an outside camera just to pass the time. He couldn't believe what he saw out there. Neither could Yamaki or anyone else.

"How did they get past us?" Yamaki managed to splutter.

"Look at all of them!" another technician blurted out.

Yamaki grinned. "I don't know how they got past our sensors and bio-emerged but they'll get no further. Activate Juggernaut immediately!"

However, as Riley tried to bring up the program, she saw she was getting no result whatever. Nor was her co-controller or any of the other technicians.

"What's wrong? Get a move on!" Yamaki urged.

"We can't, sir! Nothing is working!"

Riley ran a systems check. Her fears were confirmed. "It's a virus, sir. We've been sabotaged!" 

Yamaki was no longer smiling. "Can we purge it from our system?"  
Riley now sounded afraid. "Yes, but probably not in time."

Necromon's virus was insidious. It was a '2-part' smart virus in essence. In the first stage it merely jammed all the surveillance equipment, allowing Necromon's invasion force and the Digidestined and their MDB to cross undetected whilst the virus stayed buried in the host system undetected. Now, with a signal, Necromon had activated the second stage. This jammed all the critical systems in the building, including the Juggernaut, but ironically it reactivated the surveillance systems and left the communications in the building alone. Put simply, everyone in the building could see what was coming but they couldn't do anything about it!

Red dots practically filled the entire screen, and they were all converging on their building…

****

The school

"I know you said you wanted more digimon to show up," Kenta was saying. "But isn't this pushing it?"  
"I take it back!" Kazu replied. 

In minutes the day had gone from an ordinary school day into a day of apocalypse. At first everyone had been thrilled to see so many real digimon. Well, that is until they started blowing up things.

Jeri had never been more scared in her life. This made her encounter with Kunbiramon look like a picnic. "Shouldn't we go inside and hide somewhere?"  
"I don't think we'll be safe anywhere, Jeri!" Kenta was shaking as he spoke.

The principal and the rest of the teachers were trying to barricade the front gate. Their efforts lasted all of 2 seconds.

"Shadow Cannon!" 

The feeble blockade was blown into smithereens and the teachers were left flat out on their backs unconscious.

The kids soon found themselves surrounded by Gattlomon, Mechanorimon and Tankmon.

3 gunships flew over the school and aimed missiles at the back of one of the Gattlomon. They all hit and did precisely nothing.

"Annoying human maggots! Gattling Striker!"  
The gunships were torn apart in a hail of fire. The Gattlomon turned back to Kazu and the rest.

"The rest of you humans had better surrender," they raised their guns again. "Or do we take the guns for another spin?!"

The kids all raised their hands instantly.

"Pity! They make such good targets!" a Tankmon said. "What do we need them alive for?"  
"Lord Necromon requested it. He has something special planned. It's sure to be slow and painful whatever it is!"

Kazu, Kenta and Jeri suddenly realised it had been a very bad idea getting out of bed that morning…

In the sky over the city

"Well, well. The prodigal sons have returned. Is that it?" Necromon sneered as he faced off against Matt and Tai. The other Dark Masters also shared a laugh.

"Nice to see you too, not!" Tai growled in return.

"We owe you big time for what you did to us!" Matt snapped angrily.

"What are you complaining about? It looks like you're much improved since we last met. I'm impressed you managed to survive the world I sent you to, but I'm afraid your luck runs out here! Prepare to be deleted! Necro Crusher!"

Tai flinched as Wargreymon barely avoided the huge red fireball.

Metalseadramon joined the party. "Have a headache on me! River of Power!"  
A deadly blue beam shot out of Metalseadramon's nose. It just missed Metalgarurumon and sheared an office building in half.

"Metal Wolf Claw!" 

Despite his large size, Metalseadramon was also fast and manoeuvrable and he dodged the ice blast easily.

Tai and Wargreymon were having no more luck either. 4 Megas at once was just too much to handle as they were finding out. Wargreymon dodged Daemon's Evil Inferno but took a heavy hit from Machinedramon's Giga Cannon sending him flying through the air.

"We can't keep this up forever, Tai!" Matt gasped in despair.

"I know!" Tai said grimly. He quickly looked around at the carnage around him. The scene was horrific. People were being picked off callously by the dark digimon as they tried to flee. Buildings were in flame or were being toppled thanks to the vast amount of firepower the invaders had. Tai was always known for looking on the bright side but in his heart he knew that this battle was as good as lost. One thing was certain though: they could not lose the whole shooting match. At least one of them had to get away if they were to have any chance against the new Dark Masters. 

"Matt, take Metalgarurumon and run for it!"

"What?!" Matt stared at Tai as if he'd gone mad.

"One of us has to make it! If we stay here we'll both be killed. Now go, I'll hold them off for you. Just go!"  
With that, Tai and Wargreymon flew flat out at the Dark Masters.

Metalgarurumon, much to Matt's surprise, turned and flew in the opposite direction.

"What are you doing?" Matt screamed.

"I hate to admit it but he's right, Matt. There's no way we can beat them all together, never mind their army too. We've got to run!"

"We can't leave Tai!" Matt insisted. "Turn back before…" he trailed off as he looked back. Even if they did turn round now it would be too late.

Tai's emotions were in turmoil. On the one hand he felt like he was doing the right thing, on the other he was facing 4 dark Megas all by his lonesome and a small voice was telling him _could you be more stupid?_ He was starting to realise how Piximon must have felt when he'd done this all those years ago.

Necromon nodded in a mix of amazement and approval. "You truly deserve your crest. Protecting your friends whilst facing impossible odds. For a human, you are exceptional. But did anyone ever tell you that courage and recklessness can be a lethal mix?" He formed a huge red fireball in his hands as he nodded to his dark compatriots. "All together! Necro Crusher!"  
"Evil Inferno!"  
"River of Power!"  
"Giga Cannon!"  
A brilliant explosion, as bright as a nuclear blast, lit up the entire sky. Matt was forced to avert his eyes for a moment. When his vision cleared again…Tai and Wargreymon were gone. All he could see were the 4 Dark Masters. 

"No…No…TAAAIIIIIIIIII!!!!!!" Matt screamed in rage and pain. 2 of his best friends were gone…and all he'd done was run away. Metalgarurumon accelerated toward the woods on the city's edge. There were tears in his eyes too. He swore that one way or another the Dark Masters would pay for this!

Necromon watched them go with cold satisfaction. "Let him run. We'll deal with him and the others sooner or later."  
"I'm hoping it's sooner!" Metalseadramon chuckled.

"What happens now?" Daemon asked.

"What happens now is that we finish conquering this city and have a little fun doing it!"

Machinedramon agreed. "Nothing like a little wholesale destruction after a hard day's work!"

"Not quite wholesale. You see that tower?" Necromon pointed to the Hypnos building. "Leave that one alone. I have a…vested interest in it. Apart from that, blow up whatever you like. Have fun!"  
Necromon grinned as they left. It had been a good day. His army had crossed successfully, he'd brought his old friends back so the Dark Masters were whole again and, best of all, together they'd done what no other digimon had done before: they'd destroyed a Digidestined. He had no doubt that would break the morale of the others. They wouldn't stop him now. Soon he and his associates would rule this world and the humans would be where they belonged: bleeding at his feet!

TO BE CONTINUED…

Not a good day for the good side, eh? Tai's gone and they're facing hordes of evil digimon! Please review and give me a few ideas for the next part!


	4. The Fall of West Shinjuku

Sorry I can't write faster but work is a real pain in the $%*! right now! Plus sorry to all Tai fans for the last part (I didn't think he was _that_ popular!) but don't worry too much. Read on and find out…

****

Dark Empire

4: The fall of West Shinjuku

The MDB: forest outside the city

Matt and Metalgarurumon made it all the way back to the MDB without any further trouble. Not that Matt noticed much; he was too distraught. Gennai was waiting for him as they landed and Metalgarurumon reverted back to Gabumon.

"Gennai! Tai's…Tai's…" Matt couldn't finish before he collapsed to his knees.

Gennai quickly ran over and pulled him up. "I know, Matt. I saw it on my monitors." 

There were tears in his eyes too. This was the first time ever he'd lost a Digidestined.

"What am I going to do, Gennai? I've got to tell Kari her brother's dead and it's all my…"

"No it isn't, Matt!" Gennai snapped. "I saw it all, remember? There was nothing you could have done. I'm amazed you held them for as long as you did. Come on."

He bundled both of them into the MDB.

"By the way, it's not looking good out there."

Matt managed to pull himself together. "How bad is it?"  
Gennai switched on all the monitors. "Appalling. Necromon has brought across about 1000 digimon, various types, all Champion level up. As you'd expect, nothing's stopping them."

Matt nodded. Myotismon had been able to bring Odaiba to its knees with barely 100 digimon. Short of using a nuke, there was no way anyone would stop this lot.

"Where are TK and the others?"

Gennai moved over to another console where a digital map of the city was laid out. He pointed to several different coloured lights that were flashing at one point.

"That's where they are right now in the subway system. Provided there's no more trouble, they should get here soon and…what the?!"

Gennai had seen another light on the display. It was a fair distance from than the others and it was a faint orange in colour.

"Is that…?" Matt started to ask out of pure hope. 

"It's Tai all right! Well, his digivice at least," Gennai said cautiously as he ran some more scans. "It looks like he's in the sewers."  
"He and Wargreymon must have come down hard and gone straight through the street!" Matt realised. 

"Yes, it's hard to believe he'd survive that but we have to try," Gennai brought out a laptop and plugged it into the console. "I'll try and alert the others."

****

Hypnos building

"Sir, they're closing in on us! Nothing's stopping them!" Riley had never been more afraid in her life.

Yamaki quickly opened a channel throughout the whole building. "This is to anyone who can hear me. This facility is about to be overrun! Get to the basement and use the emergency escape to the sewers. Leave now while you can!" 

He picked up his lighter and a briefcase off a nearby table. He'd prepared what was in the case for just such an emergency, hoping he'd never need it. Hopefully he still wouldn't.

"Riley, come on. There's nothing more we can do either."  
Riley nodded. "Let's get to the elevators!"

But as she jumped from her station the entrance doors blew inward, throwing up a cloud of dust and smoke.

"No need for any hurry, humans! No one is going anywhere!"

As the smoke cleared, every human heart sank. Necromon stood there grinning nastily with a Mechanorimon at his side. 

Necromon's communicator sounded. "It's over, my lord. The building and the city are all ours!"

"Acknowledged." Necromon turned to his human prisoners. "I believe the expression is 'I win'!" 

****

Subway system

"It sounds pretty bad up there," Cody said as they went cautiously through the subway tunnels.

They could hear all the explosions and sounds of battle above.

"You're telling me!" TK was tearing himself up inside. _Be safe, Matt!_

The Tamers, meanwhile, were having problems of their own.

"I can't believe we're actually with the Digidestined!" Takato whispered. "How's it possible?"  
"Who cares?" Rika replied. "They're here helping us and that's what counts."

"Where did all these digimon come from anyway?" Henry wondered. "They don't look like they're with the Devas."

"We'll tell you everything when we get back to the base," Kari had dropped back and had overheard Henry. Then her D-terminal sounded as she received a message. "Oh no!"

"Kari? What's wrong?" TK asked.

"It's Tai! They got Tai!" 

TK quickly looked at the message.

Tai and Wargreymon shot down in battle. But I'm receiving a signal from his digivice. They're in the sewer system to the Northeast. Try and assist them if you can. Matt and Gabumon safe here with me. I'll see all of you soon I hope.

Gennai

Kari looked like she was coming apart.

TK grabbed her shoulders. "Keep it together, Kari. He's still alive! We'll find him!"

"Wait! Our parents and friends will be caught in this too!" Takato realised in horror.

Rika pulled out her cellular phone and rang home. A minute later she hung up. "No answer," she said bleakly.

"Can I try Dad?" Henry asked worriedly.

Rika tossed the phone to him and Henry rang his Dad's cellular phone.

To Henry's relief, his Dad picked up after the first ring.

"Dad? Are you ok?"

"I was about to ask you the same thing, son. I'm ok. I'm in the sewer of all places!"

"In the sewer? How did you…"

"It's a long story. I knew this was coming long before most people did so I escaped down here with…I'll tell you the rest when I meet up with you. Where are you now?"

"I'm safe in the subway for now. Dad, do you know exactly where you are? Can you find your way around?"

"Yes, we've got a map and we know where we are."

"Ok." Henry quickly looked at the map on Kari's D-terminal. "Here's the deal…"

****

Hypnos building

Necromon had moved Yamaki, Riley and all the other captured technicians to the basement lab. 2 Gattlomon, 2 Mechanorimon and a Snimon stood guard over them. Necromon had brought over a detachment of Hahgarumon to remove the virus and access the building's network. 

"At least some of us got away," Riley whispered to Yamaki as she watched the clock gear digimon access every console in the room.

"Good thing too. If they got Mr Wong and his group we'd be dead and buried," Yamaki replied.

Necromon and Daemon entered the room via the elevator. 

Riley shivered at the sight of them. "I've a feeling we might end up that way, sir. Or wish we were." 

"So it's as Impmon said, a fancy set-up indeed," Necromon was appraising the room. "It'll make a good base until we can set up a better one. Do we control all points in the city now?"

Daemon nodded. "Yes. All the humans are dead, captured or have run for the hills. It's gone perfectly."

"No it hasn't!" Necromon retorted sharply. "Those blasted Tamers and the Digidestined are still at liberty. I'd hoped they would have been found and dealt with by now."  
"Most of our digimon can't access the subways or the sewers. Besides, as you said earlier, what can they do against our forces now that their leader has been deleted!"

"True," Necromon agreed. "Let them rot in the sewers for now. We'll deal with them soon enough. In the meantime we have more planning to do. I wonder where we'll conquer next?"

Yamaki could listen to no more. "You think we're just going to roll over for you digital scum?"  
"It seems some humans still have delusions of grandeur!" Necromon sneered. However his smile evaporated quickly. "No, I don't expect you to roll over. But I do expect you to die trying!"

Daemon joined in. "This city fell with only 1000 digimon attacking it. How are you going to fight 5000, or even 10000!"

Yamaki lost some of his confidence at that. "There's more of you?"  
"Of course, did you think I committed everything just to this?" Necromon shook his head in amazement. "I can't believe this race of organic sludge has lasted so long. They're not only physically weak but a bunch of simpletons too! This invasion will be easier than I thought!"

"My lord, we have a problem," A Hahgarumon spoke up.

"What is it?"

"We've accessed most of the systems but one is encrypted."  
Yamaki allowed himself a small smile. At least the security codes on Juggernaut and the other critical files had held.

"Can you break the code?" Necromon was asking.

"Most likely. But it would be quicker if we got it from them."

Necromon looked at Yamaki and the others again. "Good point."

"Dream on! You'll never get that code from me!" Yamaki growled.

Necromon's response took everyone by surprise. Moving like the wind he lurched forward and grabbed Yamaki by the throat.

Yamaki, stunned by the digimon's strength, had no chance of breaking free.

"You're showing considerable spine, human. It'd be a pleasure to break it!"

"Kill me then. Kill us all! You'll never get that code!"

Astonishingly Necromon smiled again. "I was hoping you'd say that!"

He flung Yamaki aside to the floor and reached for his communicator again. "Bring them down. Use the cargo elevator."

2 minutes after that Kazu, Kenta, Jeri and all the other captured school kids were herded into the room.

Riley gasped in horror as she guessed what was going to happen next. She wasn't disappointed.

Necromon called over the Snimon. "Pick one. I don't care which."

Unfortunately for Kazu, he was the one chosen and soon found himself suspended in the air as the Snimon grabbed him and lifted him up high.

"You 2, front and centre!" Necromon ordered the 2 Gattlomon guards. "Now I'm going to count to 10. If we haven't obtained the code by that time you can use him for target practice. Is that clear?"  
Both Gattlomon smiled in anticipation and immediately aimed their guns at Kazu. "As ice, my lord!"

"If he still refuses after that, you can kill 2 more. Then 4 more, and 8 more on the time after that and so on and so on until we get the code or we run out of targets."

"You're bluffing!" Yamaki blurted.

Riley sighed in despair. Whatever else this digimon was, he didn't strike her as the type to make idle threats. He'd decimated a city after all. She had no doubt he'd kill them all in the end anyway.

"Am I really?" Necromon said coldly. "Well then, stay silent and find out. 1…2…3!"

"Sir, I think you should give him the code!" Riley could hold back no more.

"4…5!"

"I can't do that and you know it!" 

Kazu was sweating like a pig and shaking in fear by now. He was putting up an almighty struggle but the Snimon held him like a vice.

"6…7…8!"

The Gattlomon's guns were now starting to spin. "Gattling…!"

Riley finally snapped. "Damn it! If you won't give him the code I will!" She ran over to a terminal and typed in a sequence.

"It worked, my lord. We have access to everything!" the controller happily reported.

Necromon nodded at Riley in appreciation. "Very sensible. Stand down!"

The Gattlomon were disappointed but they powered their guns down. The Snimon dropped a sobbing Kazu to the floor.

Riley ran to Kazu and pulled him into a hug.

Yamaki was enraged. "Do you know what you've done?!"  
"I saved this kid's life!" Riley snapped back. "I thought saving lives was our job, _sir!_"

Yamaki had no reply to that.

Daemon looked at Necromon proudly. "I see I was right to ally with you. You're every bit as ruthless and malevolent as your reputation said you were!"

"I like to think so," Necromon replied as he turned to the controllers. "Tell Machinedramon and Metalseadramon to step up the hunt for the Tamers and Digidestined. Also contact the castle and have them send the construction and worker crews across. For the moment we'll make this city our base of operations while we prepare our next move."

"And what would that be?" Daemon asked with interest.

"Something that will get this world's attention. Do you think a few million more dead humans will do it?"

****

In the sewers

"Are you sure there's anything down here?" 

"My son said there's someone who needs help down here, so there must be!"

Tai heard the voices from down the sewer corridor but he was too weak to call out. Wargreymon had taken the brunt of the Dark Masters' attacks and had managed to shield him from the worst of it. However, he hadn't been able to protect him totally and he had sustained severe burns. Half of his face looked like it had been charbroiled. The last thing he remembered was blacking out from the pain before they'd hit the street. When he woke up he was in the sewer tunnel on top of a pile of rubble with an unconscious Koromon next to him. He was still in immense pain. It felt like he was being constantly blasted with a flame-thrower. 

Suddenly he found a bright light being shone into his face.

"Hey! I've found…Oh my God!"

"Daisy? What is it?"  
Mr Wong then saw and gasped in shock. He snapped out of it quickly. "Help me lift him. He needs urgent help!"

****

Hypnos building

"Well, well, well. Interesting research you were conducting here," Necromon said, half in interest and half in disgust.

"Damn, they know about Juggernaut and everything now!" Yamaki seethed in rage.

"They'd have broken our codes eventually," Riley replied. "I couldn't just stand by. He'd have killed everyone here without hesitation."

Yamaki nodded. On reflection, he knew he'd been wrong. "I can understand that. But you think he won't anyway?"

"The same thing crossed my mind," Riley said. "Not much we can do though." 

"Now what do we have here? Project Juggernaut?" Necromon opened the file. "Bloodthirsty humans aren't you?"

Necromon read more of the technical data.

"Hahahaha! GWAHAHAHA!"

Everyone in the room, digimon and human, was taken aback by Necromon's reaction.

"What's so funny?" Daemon asked in confusion.

"Come and see for yourself!" Necromon managed to splutter.

Daemon looked at the file but still didn't see much to laugh about. "I still don't understand."

"The Juggernaut project was supposed to destroy all digimon in this realm," Necromon explained. "Attract them to it and then destroy them. But these fools didn't anticipate the effect it would have _outside _their world. I never told you how I found this realm did I? I didn't stumble across it by accident. When Juggernaut's first phase was activated it unleashed a wave of energy across the dimensions. A little like sending up a flare. I detected it at the castle, noted its location, and paid this world a visit a little later. I was happy with what I found!"

He grinned at Yamaki and Riley who were starting to realise the awful truth.

"That's right! You wanted to get rid of all digimon but instead you put up a flag saying 'here's a good world, please conquer it'! HAHAHAHA!"

All the other digimon joined the laughter as Yamaki sank to his knees in despair. _What have I done?! I LED them here! It's all MY fault!_

"What do you want done with these humans, my lord?" A Gattlomon asked when they'd all calmed down.

"I've no further use for them. Put them in with the other captives," Necromon ordered coldly. 

The humans were urged into the cargo lift and taken out of the building. Yamaki, jolted out of his self-loathing, just managed to grab his briefcase before he was forced out too. _I may have caused all this, but I'm not going to give up now!_

****

The MDB

"TK!" 

"Matt!" 

The brothers flew into each other's arms outside the MDB.

"I thought I'd lost you for good!" TK sighed in relief.

"No such luck, TK!" Matt grinned. Then he turned serious again. "How's Tai?"

TK looked at Henry. "His Dad found him. He's alive but he's hurt badly. They're on their way here now."  
"I'll go help them," Cody offered.

"I'll go too and watch your back," Ken added.

TK nodded. "Go meet them and get back here quickly!"

"Done and done!" Ken said as he and Cody left.

Gennai emerged from the MDB. "Good to see you're all safe. So these must be this world's Digidestined?"

Matt nodded. "We got to them just in time, Gennai."  
This was almost too much for the Tamers. _Gennai? He's real too? _

"What's wrong?" Kari asked. 

"Well it's just…the invasion then uh…all this and…ugh!" Takato couldn't seem to find the words.

"Why don't you come in and sit down?" Gennai offered. "You've been through a lot after all and there's a lot more to come. Besides, we could all use something to eat."  
"Something to eat?!" Guilmon and Terriermon tore past everyone into the MDB at hyper speed.

TK grinned. "They're digimon all right!"  


****

The sewers at the edge of the city

"How far now?" Mr Wong was getting tired after walking for so long with an unconscious Tai slung over his back. Recognising him for what he was, he had picked up Koromon after Tai and he was carrying him in his arms.

"Not far. We should be coming out of the city any time now," Daisy said. She was the only other team member who'd stayed with him. The rest he'd all lost in the sewers in the hurry to escape the Hypnos building. "There it is!"

Both of them could see a grate ahead and open woodland through it. After the long painful process of prying the grate off and lowering Tai and Koromon down they stopped for a rest whilst thinking what to do next.

"Wasn't your son supposed to meet us or something?" Daisy asked.

"I'd hoped he'd be here," Mr Wong admitted. "Still, he can't be far away. Let's head into the woods. We'd best get away from open ground."

However, they'd barely gone five steps when a gigantic spider digimon burst from the trees. It looked like a bigger version of Dokugumon and its colours were different. The spider itself was jet black while the skull and crossbones were flame-red. 

"First you'll have to get past me, Arachnomon!" the digimon taunted. "And believe me, that's NOT going to happen!"

"Spiking Strike!" 

Arachnomon was sent reeling backward by Stingmon's attack but he recovered quickly.

"Think again! If you want them you're going to have to go through us!" Ken snapped as he stood alongside Cody and Ankylomon.

"Gladly! Not only do I get extra dinner but Lord Necromon will promote me for sure; Venom Blast!"

Everyone flung themselves to the ground to avoid the stream of highly toxic red venom.

"He's an Ultimate! Cody, call for help. This may be more than we can handle alone!"

"Right!" Cody opened his D-terminal quickly; hoping the others could reach them in time…

The MDB

Meanwhile the Tamers were locked in conversation with Gennai. The rest of the Digidestined, worried that Cody and Ken hadn't returned, had gone to help them and this gave Gennai a chance to get to know this realm's Digidestined, or Tamers as he now knew they were. They'd discussed everything: how they'd met their digimon, Yamaki and his group, Impmon and the Devas. Yet Gennai had sensed something was wrong from the moment he'd met them. He had a talent for reading people and he could sense that the Tamers were hiding something. 

"So, is there _anything else_ you want to tell me?" he asked pointedly.

The way he asked certainly wasn't lost on Henry. "Maybe we should tell him."  
"Are you sure, Henry?" Rika didn't seem convinced. 

"No, but I don't think we've got much choice."  
Takato nodded. "Well, the truth is…We've seen you and the Digidestined before."

Gennai was puzzled. "I don't recall meeting any of you before. I'd certainly never forget digimon like yours!" Like many before him, Gennai had thought Guilmon and Renamon were Champions. He'd never seen such large Rookies. And Calumon…that was something else again, a fun loving digimon that helped theirs to digivolve and apparently had no attacks of his own.

"Not personally. We've…seen you on TV!" Henry revealed.

"On TV?"  
"Yeah. We've seen you and the fights with Devimon, Etemon, Myotismon, Piedmon and the Dark Masters and the Digimon Emperor," Takato went on. "We nearly had heart attacks when you showed up here for real!"

Gennai was amazed but nodded in understanding. He'd noticed the Tamers hadn't been very curious when the introductions had been made. Now he knew why: they already knew all the answers! Well, almost all at any rate. The Tamers had never heard of Necromon or the Digidestined's conflict with Sephiroth. 

"How can this be possible?" Henry had asked.

"I haven't a clue. I guess it's a one of those great universal mysteries that no one's ever meant to solve or it would just drive you mad if you ever learned the truth. I always did get migraines trying to figure out dimensional and temporal mechanics!"

"It doesn't matter, does it?" Terriermon broke in. "They're real and they're helping us, right Henry?"  
"Right," Henry replied as Terriermon settled on his head again.

Gennai grinned. _Just like Willis's, Terriermon never change!_ "Well, there's certainly no TV writer that's controlling me or any of us now. Necromon and his forces are 100% real, unfortunately."

"So what do we do?" Rika asked worriedly.

"Retreat and regroup for a start," Gennai said. "But I think there's something you might want to see first. I've tapped into some overhead spy satellites. Look what I found in the city centre…"

The Tamers all stared in horror. Necromon's troops had captured a lot of the population and were holding them in the park.

"All our parents and friends must be there too! We've got to get them out!" Takato was worried sick.

"Calm down," Gennai advised. "Any bad moves on our part would be disastrous right now. We'll wait until the others get back and then we'll plan a rescue attempt together. Oh, and by the way, don't tell them what you just told me. I don't know if they'd take it as well as I have."

The Tamers nodded in agreement as they sat down to wait.

****

City Park

The whole of the park had been turned into a makeshift prison camp. All the captured humans had been placed here. As well as the school and Hypnos group, Takato's parents, Rika's Mom and Grandma and many others were all there too. Tyrannomon, Tuskmon and Monochromon guarded the perimeter whilst Snimon and Flymon watched from overhead.

Riley had just returned to the main group after a look around. "No good. They've got the whole park bottled up. There's no way out."

"We know," Takato's Dad said miserably. "A few others tried running. They didn't get ten feet before they got nailed." 

"Takato's not here!" Takato's Mom wailed. "You don't suppose that he's…"

"Mrs Matsuki, I don't know where your son is. But I do know he's alright," Yamaki assured her.

"How are you so sure?" Riley asked him quietly.

"I overheard that red one saying those 'blasted Tamers' had escaped. I assume he meant all of them."

"Wherever he is he's better off than we are!" Kenta muttered. Both he and Jeri hadn't had much luck cheering up Kazu, who was understandably still in shellshock. 

He wasn't the only one. Rika's Mom wasn't dealing with reality well either. "They interrupted one of my best photo shoots too!"

"Is that all you can think about at a time like this?!" Rika's Grandma was incredulous.

"Any sewer holes that we can get to?" Yamaki was still set on escape.

"Nothing that's big enough to fit through or that isn't covered by them," Riley replied firmly. "We're stuck for now."  
"No good sneaking out either," Kenta said grimly. "They're dinosaur digimon. They'll sniff us out like bloodhounds."

"Then we're dead!" Rika's Mom sighed. "We're stuck here until they drag us off to be eaten…" 

"Eaten?" Jeri didn't want to believe she'd heard that.

"12 people got dragged off half an hour ago," another man revealed. "Only problem: they never came back again!" 

"Will you shut up?" Riley snapped. "It's bad enough in here without your help!"

"It just got worse," Yamaki suddenly said pointing upwards.

Everyone looked up to see Necromon and the other Dark Masters hovering above.

"Greetings humans! I suppose most of you are wondering what is going on so I'll be good enough to tell you. We're the new landlords here and all your leases just expired! This is our world now so make use of what little time you have left. Simply put; party like there's no tomorrow, because for you there's not! HAHAHAHA! Have a nice life, what's left of it!" 

TO BE CONTINUED…


	5. Escape from West Shinjuku

Ok, ok, I'm writing as fast as I can! (which aint very fast I know.) I just can't write very quickly. My ideas just don't come all at once and neither does my writing and…oh forget it. To answer Raven's question, no I don't think Sephiroth will be back in this. They've got enough problems as is! I'm going to give them a little help though…you'll see who and what in this part.

****

Dark Empire

5: Escape from West Shinjuku

The woods just outside West Shinjuku

"We're in trouble!" Ken screamed as he and his group narrowly dodged another Venom Blast. 

"The others should be coming," Cody replied.

Stingmon was weaving around Arachnomon whilst Anklyomon tried to shield Cody and the others. Both, though, knew they were outmatched. Arachnomon was more annoyed by their attacks than hurt.

Tai had now woken up and was starting to wish he hadn't! Both he and Koromon were still too weak to do much of anything. 

Arachnomon had by now lost patience. "Enough of this! Tangler Net!"  
Arachnomon shot out a stream of sticky cobweb that tangled up both Stingmon and Anklyomon. He then turned to Ken's now defenceless party. "Now, which of you would like to volunteer to be eaten first?"

As much as she feared spiders, Daisy wasn't scared enough to freeze up and be eaten. Nor would she have her friends eaten either. 

"I'll lead him off, you run for it!" she ran for the trees before anyone could argue.

This was a rash move though. Arachnomon smiled as he calmly tracked her. "So we have a volunteer. Good, that deserves a reward. Today's reward is a painful death! Venom Blast!"

Arachnomon's shot caught her at point blank range. She screamed in agony as the poison infected her entire system and collapsed. However, as Arachnomon turned back to the rest of the group, TK and Angemon arrived on the scene.

"Hand of Fate!"

Arachnomon lurched back as the attack burned the ground in front of him.

"Don't even think about it!" TK snarled.

"And who's going to stop me, you?"  
"He's not alone!" Silphymon had appeared behind Angemon.

"You've got that right!" Cody raised his digivice and Shakkoumon soon joined the party, tearing up the Tangler Net as he did so.

Faced with 2 other Ultimates, Arachnomon decided retreat was the safest option. "Don't think you've seen the last of me, Digidestined! I'll get you yet!" With that he scuttled away toward the city. 

Mr Wong ran over to Daisy but it was already too late; Arachnomon's poison was so potent it had killed her in seconds.   
"Damn it!" he slammed a fist into the ground in rage and pain. "Why did she do it?! We could have escaped together…"

The Digidestined didn't know what they could say. "I wish I'd got here sooner," TK eventually managed. "Shakkoumon could have…"  
"Forget it," Mr Wong said. "It's not your fault."

"TK…"  
"Tai!" TK had finally noticed Tai and the state he was in.

"Did…everyone…?"  
"We all got away, Tai," TK reassured him. 

"If we want to stay free we'd better go before Arachnomon calls in reinforcements," Ken warned.

TK nodded. "Alright, let's get out of here!"

****

The MDB

"Dad!" Henry had never been happier to see his father. 

"I'm glad you're safe, son. I just wish Daisy had made it too…"

"What happened?" Gennai asked.

Ken and Cody quickly filled him in. 

"He was like Dokugumon but more powerful," Ken said. "He really seemed to enjoy it."

Gennai snorted in disgust. "He did. His name's Arachnomon, another of Necromon's dark generals. He's also Necromon's oldest ally and servant. They were working together long before this invasion. You were very lucky, his Venom Blast makes Dokugumon's Poison Thread look like a mild case of the sniffles." 

"Tell me about it," Mr Wong said bitterly.

Gennai turned to Mr Wong. "I'm sorry about your friend. If it's any consolation I doubt she suffered for long. She probably never knew what hit her." 

"Tai!" Matt and Kari were appalled at his injuries.

"Get him inside quickly," Gennai ordered. 

As Tai was taken to a medical bay in the back of the MDB, Matt quickly filled the others in. "It doesn't look good. They've taken the city and they've got a lot of people penned up in the park."

"Including our parents and all our friends!" Takato growled angrily.

"What do you think they'll do with them?" Cody asked worriedly.

"Knowing Necromon and the other Dark Masters, they'll kill them all no matter what," Matt said grimly. 

"We have to save them!" Henry and his father were appalled. Henry's sister and the rest of the family were among the prisoners.

TK considered. "We'll have to wait until tonight. Doing anything during the day will be far too risky."  
"How do we get to them?" Ken asked. "There are hundreds of digimon in there, and won't they be expecting us?"  
"No, I don't think so," Matt said. "For all they know we've just run for the hills, especially since we just met Arachnomon." 

"How are we going to do it then? A frontal attack's out, right?" Ken went on.

TK nodded. "Dead right it's out. We'll have to go underground again and tunnel in underneath them."

"Uh, that's great but how will we know where to tunnel up?" Rika asked sceptically.

"If we're in contact with Gennai he can tell us where to drill," Matt told her. "He can monitor the whole city from the base and our locations from our digivices."  
Gennai heard Matt as he emerged from the MDB. "That's right. Plus now I've got one of these…" he held up Mr Wong's mobile. "I can contact you directly rather than using e-mails. Oh, one other thing, I need a Tamer digivice for a second."

Takato shrugged. "No problemo," he tossed his digivice to Gennai.

Gennai went back inside and inserted the digivice into a scanner. After a minute he took it back to Takato. "Good. Now I can keep tabs on you as well."

"How's Tai?" Kari asked.

"He'll be alright. Wargreymon absorbed most of the hit," Gennai explained. "But both of them will be out of action for awhile."

"So we just sit and wait for nightfall," Matt said. He glanced at the Tamers. "Time to trade stories, I guess."

"Good idea," Gennai said. "I'll keep you informed if anything changes."

As Gennai went back into the control room, he was taken aback to find Tai there. He could barely stand up.

"Tai, what are you doing out of bed? You're in no condition to…"  
"Gennai…I know where we can…get some help."

Gennai started to help Tai back to his bed. "What do you mean?"

As Tai explained Gennai listened in amazement, wondering why he hadn't thought of it himself. "Tai, it's a good idea. I'll see what I can do. Now do us all a favour and get some rest."

****

Hypnos building

"Are the construction crews across safely?" Necromon asked.

"Yes, my lord. However, they are lacking in materials. We will need a lot more if they are to complete their task."  
"I anticipated that. We'll be moving on with the invasion shortly. Hopefully we should capture the material we need in short order."

"My lord!" 

Necromon turned to see his long-time servant Arachnomon. "What is it? You're supposed to be guarding the edge of the city!"

"I was, my lord. I…had an encounter with the Digidestined…"  
"And let me guess, you let them get by you!" Necromon gave him an intense look that would have split stone. 

"Forgive me, my lord. They were too powerful for me alone!"

"So they're out of the city now?" Daemon was none too pleased at that news.

"So it would appear," Necromon was disappointed too. He had hoped to pin them down in the city and then annihilate them there. He glared at Arachnomon. "If you hadn't served me so loyally over the years, I'd delete you right here. If you fail me again, I won't be so merciful! Now get out of my sight!"

Arachnomon scuttled away before Necromon's mood got any worse.

Necromon cursed again. "We'll just have to wait until they resurface again. In the meantime we'll press on with the invasion. Whatever they do now, they can't stop us doing that. We have too much power and…"  
"My lord, we have some new enemies."

"What? Show me!"

The Hahgarumon brought up the view from one of the cameras at the edge of the city. It showed a large number of tanks and soldiers approaching.

"Well, well, so the humans are taking us seriously at last."

"Seriously? They still don't know what real power is!" Daemon scoffed.

"They will soon," Necromon promised. "Machinedramon, we have a few human pests approaching the city. Take some forces and squash them, would you? I would appreciate it."  
"They're as good as squashed!" Machinedramon cackled. 

Necromon smiled. If only everything could be as easy as this…

****

The subway

"Gennai, are we in the right position?" Henry asked through his cell phone.

"You're in the best position I can get you," Gennai replied. "Start drilling up now and you should come out in the park trees. Hopefully you won't be seen too quickly. I'll see you back here later. Good luck."

"Ready, Digmon?" Cody asked.

"I'll drill us up there in a flash!" Digmon started to drill upward.

Takato brought out his digivice and cards. "Ok Guilmon, Digi-Modify…Digmon's drill Activate!"

Guilmon's hands became drills and he started to dig alongside Digmon. 

"Try and keep it quiet," Matt advised. "We'll be in REAL trouble if we're discovered…"

"I hope so," Rika said quietly as she held Calumon. "I don't want me and Renamon to get rusty!" 

"Since when was drilling quiet, Matt?" Takato complained.  
"Yeah, I know. Let's get this over with and get out of here, right Takato?"  
Takato didn't argue with that. 

****

The park

There was nothing but fear, despair and desolation in the park after Necromon's 'announcement'.

"You can't do this! We created you!" Yamaki had raged. "You think we're going to be conquered by bits of data?! Humanity will never go down to you scum!"  
Necromon sniggered. "Very funny, human. Maybe I should keep you around just to make me laugh!"

"The idea of digimon having anything to do with humans…it turns my stomach!" Metalseadramon added. "Shall I destroy him?"  
Necromon shook his head. "Leave him to suffer in his own misery. He'll be dead soon along with all the rest. Come, we have other business at hand."

With that, the Dark Masters had left to return to the tower. 

"Now what?" Takato's Dad was full of fury. "We just sit here and wait for them to pick us off one by one?!"  
"We wait, but only until tonight," Yamaki said grimly. "Then we'll try some sort of escape then. I don't know about the rest of you but I'm not just going to sit here and wait for a digital nightmare to kill me."

The entire group nodded in agreement. As Kenta turned back to Jeri, who was still trying to bring Kazu out of his low state, he noticed a glowing coming from Kazu's pocket where he kept his cards. Before he could say anything, however, it disappeared.

Writing it off as a hallucination, Kenta sat down to rest and wait. He was still waiting for a miracle 2 hours later. He hadn't much faith in Yamaki's escape bid. Even at night, dinosaur digimon were expert trackers and detectors. What they needed was a miracle, not a desperate escape. A second later he got his wish.

"Jeri, you hear something?"  
Jeri did. It sounded like electric drills. "Who's drilling?"

Kenta soon found out as Guilmon drilled up right underneath him! He just managed to scramble away in time.

"Guilmon!" Jeri had never been more relieved to see the red digimon. 

"Keep it down!" Takato followed Guilmon out of the hole. "We've got a way out but we need to keep it quiet! Oomph!"  
Takato had barely finished speaking when his parents practically smothered him. 

"Takato, are you all right? We thought you were…"

"Mom!" Takato groaned in protest as Cody and Digmon drilled up to the surface. 

Henry, Rika, TK, Yolei and Kari scrambled up behind Digmon with their digimon. 

"What are we waiting for? Let's get everyone out!" Cody said eagerly.

"We'll have to do it slowly," TK cautioned. "If everyone goes missing at once…"  
The message was clear. Even a fool would figure out that something was wrong. 

Yamaki was stunned. Where had all these extra Tamers come from? He thought Hypnos had got a handle on all of them. Still, he wasn't going to complain now. "You've got a secure way out?"  
Takato, Henry, Rika and their digimon glared at Yamaki with distaste. Given their history it wasn't surprising. 

"How the mighty have fallen, eh?" Despite the circumstances, Henry couldn't resist gloating a little.

Riley came to his rescue. "I know we've not been on the best of terms but can we work together for awhile and get out of here?"

"Fine by me," Takato growled. The sooner this was over the better as far as he was concerned.

His parents were having a lot of trouble taking all of this in. "Takato, what is going on? Who's or _what _is that with you and…" 

"Mom, Dad, I'll explain it all when we're out of here, ok? Don't worry about Guilmon. He's a good friend of mine."

The Digidestined were now beginning to sneak around the park and direct people back to the escape tunnel. It was a slow and risky process. There were Tyrannomon and Monochromon patrolling on the ground and Snimon watching from the air. Any detection and…none of them wanted to think about that. 

Meanwhile below in the subway, Matt and Gabumon had discovered another problem. Matt had tried calling Gennai on Rika's mobile to check if there was anything headed their way. But he wasn't getting any reply. In fact he wasn't getting a dial tone, period. Matt checked everything over. The battery was still fully charged and he still had a good signal despite being underground. Matt was starting to like this less and less. Gennai wouldn't just abandon them. _What if he's been found and…?_

Matt swiftly pulled himself together. Ken and Wormmon were with him and Gennai could look after himself. Besides he had enough to contend with here with the steady stream of people that were coming down the tunnel. 

****

The MDB

The reason Matt didn't get a reply was that Gennai had moved the MDB to another realm at Tai's insistence. Fortunately the co-ordinates Tai had given Gennai were accurate and they'd come out in the right place in the right realm. Now they were on their way back with 5 new 'passengers'.

Mr Wong was struggling to keep up with everything. "Real digimon, a digimon invasion and now a machine that jumps worlds? This is giving me a real migraine…"

"Tell me about it, no one mentioned this before," Ken wasn't doing much better.

"It gets easier, trust me!" Tai grinned. He was fully healed now thanks to the guests he'd brought aboard, except for a nasty scar over his eye and down the right side of his face. "You sure you're ok with this?" he asked them.  
"You helped us before and you were nearly killed for it. We owe you the same favour. But you and Matt will have to retrain with me later if the threat's as big as you say it is. You're 3 years out of practice."

Tai groaned. That meant a load of pain with extra fries later. 

"Ready to jump back, Tai, everyone?" Gennai asked.

"We're ready, Gennai. Just make sure you put us back in the same place. The others will need us."  
"Don't worry. The co-ordinates will still be the same and I think I've got the time difference nailed down. Ok, here we go."  
Another guest chipped in. "Finally, some more action! Good you showed up when you did, Tai. We were getting bored!"

Tai smiled grimly. "Trust me. You won't be getting bored where we're going…"

****

The park

By now, Jeri and Kenta had discovered who the Tamers' new friends actually were and they were having a hard time keeping them quiet. 

"Listen guys, you can't tell them we've seen them on TV!" Takato muttered. "What do you think that's going to do?"  
"Ok Takato, we get the idea!" Kenta replied. 

Takato then noticed his other friend. "Kazu? What's wrong?"   
Kazu had been jolted back to reality by seeing the Tamers again but he was still feeling down. "I'm…okay Chumly."

"He's been through a lot," Riley overheard the conversation. "That red leader of theirs strung him up and threatened to splatter him over a wall unless we gave him the access codes to our computer!"  
"Sounds like Necromon all right," Kari sighed.

"Well, don't just stand there. Let's get out while we can!" Rika said impatiently. "If we stay here he'll string us all up!"   
"What's the hurry, human slime?" 

Cody and TK knew that voice all too well. They turned around and weren't disappointed. Arachnomon stood a short distance away with 2 Tyrannomon and 2 Monochromon as back up.

"I expected you to return to try and free this lot. Emotion is such a pathetic weakness!"   
"That's a compliment coming from something like you!" Henry shot back. 

"Then here's another one! Venom Blast!"  
Everyone fell aside or took cover behind the trees. No one wanted the same fate as Daisy.

"Time to digivolve!" TK grabbed his digivice. All the Digidestined and Tamers did likewise.  
"Get going," Rika urged her mother and everyone else. "We'll stop this little spider! Ok, Digi-modify…digivolution activate!"

"Here we goooo!" Calumon's forehead started to glow. So did the Digidestined's digivices as they started their digivolutions to Champion level.

"Awesome!" Kenta never tired of seeing that. Then an idea struck him. "Kazu, Jeri, grab your cards. They might need help!"

As Kazu fumbled through his pockets for his cards he suddenly realised something else was in there too. His mouth fell open when he realised what it was. 

"Hand of Fate!"   
Arachnomon was blasted onto his back but he didn't look badly hurt. 

"Blast Rings!" 

"Gold Rush!" 

"Celestial Arrow!" 

"Gargo Laser!"

"Pyro Blaster!"

"Fox-Tail Inferno!"

The Tyrannomon and Monochromon never stood a chance against that much firepower and were deleted instantly.

"What's wrong, arachnid? Not so cocky now?" Rika gibed.

"Nice moves, kiddies! But did you think they were the only digimon here? Now it's our turn!" Arachnomon looked upwards as he finished speaking. 

Everyone followed his gaze to see a wave of Flymon and Snimon bearing down on them! 

"Twin Sickles!" Aquilamon and Yolei were the first victims for a Snimon. In the blink of an eye they fell to the ground and Aquilamon reverted back to Hawkmon. 

"Brown Stingers!"

Angemon quickly used his rod to bat away the Flymon's attacks.

"There's too many of them," Cody said desperately. "We've got to go now!"

"He's right, there's another wave of mechanoid digimon coming in," Angewomon warned. "And Metalseadramon's with them!"

"Alright, let's fight our way back to the tunnel. They can't follow us there," TK decided.

Henry nodded. "Gargomon, clear us a path!"   
"Got it, Henry. I hate flies anyway! Gargo Laser!"

Gargomon knocked out 8 Flymon and caused the rest to scatter.

All the other digimon concentrated their attacks on Arachnomon again and sent him flying backward. Before he could get up and return fire, his enemies were long gone.

Rika, meanwhile, was having trouble forcing Takato's parents, Yamaki and Riley to go down the tunnel. None of them had seen a digimon battle before and all had 'frozen spectator' syndrome.

"For the last time, get down!" Rika was screaming. "Before one of them…" She trailed off as she saw a Monochromon heading their way.

"Dragon Wheel!" Kyubimon slammed into his side, causing him to turn on her in rage.

"Sir, let's go!" With the action so close, Riley had regained her senses.

"We should have been able to stop this sooner!" Yamaki raged before starting down the tunnel. "I can't believe it's come to this!"

Takato's Mom had to be dragged down the tunnel by his Dad. "We can't go, Takato's still…"  
"Takato will be alright…I hope," he added under his breath.

Rika breathed a sigh of relief as they vanished out of sight. The relief didn't last. "Kyubimon, look out!"

"Volcanic Strike!"

Kyubimon was bathed in fire thanks to a very annoyed Monochromon and she reverted to Renamon. Worse still, a Guardromon was coming up behind and was powering up his attack. 

Rika was reaching for a recharge card when she got some unexpected aid.

"Digi-modify…Power activate!"

That caused Rika to look up with a start. Had that been _Kazu's_ voice?

"Grenade Destroyer!"  
The Guardromon's point blank missile shots obliterated the Monochromon, who disintegrated into data in sheer disbelief.

"YEAH! Do we rule or what, Guardromon?" Kazu appeared behind the Guardromon, holding a brand new orange digivice. 

__

Kazu a Tamer? God help us! That was Rika's first thought as she ran over to Renamon who was slowly getting up.

"Rika, is everyone out now? We…_Kazu?_" Takato was speechless.

"Hi Chumly! See, my very own digimon! Now I'll really rule!" The old Kazu was definitely back.

"Yes Gogglehead, everyone's out. Everyone but us."

"Another Tamer? Maybe we do still have some luck!" TK and the other Digidestined came up behind Takato and Henry. 

"Yeah. But we have to get out of here first!" Cody warned.

"He's right. We have to go now, Heaven's Charm!" Angewomon deleted another wave of Flymon.

"Digmon, can you widen the tunnel?" Cody asked.

"No problem! Rock Cracking!" 

"Let's go!" TK ordered.

"What about them?" Henry was worried. "Now we've widened the tunnel they'll be able to follow us down."

"Not if we collapse the tunnel on the other end!" TK grinned.

Matt was waiting at the other end with Yamaki and the rest for that very purpose. "Everyone out?" 

"Everyone we could get," Kari replied.

"Alright. Get back. Ready, Growlmon?" Takato asked  
"Ready! Pyro Blaster!"

Kazu grinned. "We'll give you a hand, right Guardromon?"  
"Grenade Destroyer!"

The combined shots did the job and collapsed the park tunnel behind them.

"Let's get moving before they find a way through," Takato advised.

"And all this time I thought they were playing games…" Yamaki was amazed at how wrong he'd been.

"Some game!" Henry said bitterly as he walked past him down the tunnel.

Yamaki and Riley had no reply to that.

****

Hypnos building

Necromon could scarcely believe what he'd just heard.

"All the prisoners gone through the subways? An audacious plan coming from children. They're more dangerous than I thought."

"Can we still stop them?" Daemon asked. "Most of our forces are still engaged against the human army."

"Fortunately I have a plan in reserve. Tell Metalseadramon to pull one of the work crews away. He'll know what to do with them."  
"Yes my lord."  
"The Digidestined think they are untouchable where they are now. That mistake may well be their undoing…"

****

The MDB

"At least we're back in the same place," Ken said as he lowered the ramp.

"I'll see if I can contact them," Gennai said, picking up the cell phone.

It didn't take long to get a reply.

"Gennai! What the hell happened to the early warning?!" Matt screamed down the phone. "Some Drimogemon just drilled down to us with Gattlomon behind! We're getting slaughtered!"

"Hang on, Matt! Help's on its way!" Gennai replied.

"Damn! I should have known this would happen," Tai cursed. "Come on, Agumon, let's go."  
"Not you, Tai!" Gennai warned.

"What? Why?" Tai couldn't believe it. "Gennai, Kari's in trouble! Not to mention Matt and all my other friends! I can't just leave them!"  
"We're not abandoning them, Tai. Everyone else is going but I'd rather you stayed behind for now. Necromon still thinks you're dead. Best we keep it that way for as long we can. You're an ace in the hole that he doesn't know about and we're going to need every one of those we can get. Besides, Wargreymon isn't exactly built for fighting in enclosed subway tunnels."

"He's right, Tai," Ken added. "Let us handle it. We'll bring them all back, I promise."

"I'll hold you to that!" Tai could never forgive himself if his sister or friends were killed while he did nothing.

"Then let's get going!" 

****

The subway

"Keep going, we're almost there!" Henry managed to gasp. 

Everyone in the group, human and digimon was running like hell. At first everything had seemed ok since they'd sealed the park tunnel. Everyone had assumed they were safe underground. Wrong! Takato had been the first to sense trouble when he heard drilling noises. He knew Guilmon wasn't drilling and Digmon had reverted back to Armadillomon after his heavy drilling sessions. Which meant…

"What's wrong, Chumly?" Kazu had asked, seeing Takato's expression.

"Can't you hear that?" Takato had shot back.

Matt quickly realised what it was and was immediately proved right as 2 Drimogemon broke through the tunnel wall behind them.

Angemon and Angewomon reacted quickly.

"Hand of Fate!"  
"Celestial Arrow!"

Both scored direct hits and destroyed the Drimogemon but were then faced with a Gattlomon.

"Gattling Striker!"

Both angel digimon were caught head on and TK and Kari were forced to catch Patamon and Gatomon as they fell from the air.

"Will this never end?" Jeri wailed.

"Run for it, I'll cover you!" Matt ordered.

"You can't fight in here. The tunnel will come down on us!" Yamaki protested.

"We'll have to take that chance," Takato snarled back. His D-Power was picking up multiple signals. More Drimogemon were drilling down and that meant more trouble. "Now run!"  
Henry and Gargomon went to the front to protect the group from that side. But Henry knew that if any Ultimates crashed the party from his side and they ended up surrounded…

"Run faster, we're nearly out of the city."  
"I was built for modelling not running!" Rika's Mom groaned.

"Grenade Destroyer!"  
"Pyro Blaster!"

Both attacks hit the 2 pursuing Gattlomon but they didn't have much effect.

"They're Ultimates! We can't compete with them!" Takato was losing hope fast.

"We can, right Gabumon?" Matt asked confidently.

"If I go Mega in here, I might bring the whole tunnel down," Gabumon countered. He was amazed the roof was holding up with the Gattlomon firing. 

"If they get us we're dead for sure, now warp digivolve!" Matt ordered. 

"Right!"

A second later, Metalgarurumon had joined the action. 

"Metal Wolf Claw!"

This time the Gattlomon lost the power struggle. Fortunately the tunnel stayed solid too.

"How do you like that, digi-losers!" Kazu gloated.

It was then they heard a scream from up ahead.  
"They're hitting the front too!" Matt realised. "Collapse the tunnel here, I'll go!"

Henry, the younger Digidestined and the others had run out of the tunnel…straight into the sights of another Gattlomon and a Mechanorimon.

"Target in range…Twin Beam!"

Gargomon ended up on the receiving end of a red energy bolt and he was knocked out of the fight.

"Gattling Striker!"  
The Gattlomon opened up, straight…at…Henry!

"Look out, get out of the way!"

Henry was suddenly shoved aside, unfortunately that meant his rescuer got the shots instead. Of all people, it was Yamaki. He crumpled to the floor; his front riddled with gattling fire.

"Everyone get down now!"  
Hearing Matt's voice, everyone hit the floor giving Metalgarurumon a clear shot.

"Giga Missile!"

Both dark digimon fell to the heavy missile shot.

"Is everyone ok?" Matt asked when the dust settled.

"Actually no!" Henry and Riley ran over to Yamaki. He was in a real bad way. His breathing was quick and laboured and his chest was a scarlet mass. "Hang on, we're going back to our base. We'll get you some help…"  
"I'm…going somewhere alright. But I don't (cough) think it's with you," Yamaki gasped. He rolled onto his side and managed to stretch out his arm to reach for his briefcase. Riley picked it up herself to save him the effort.

"You'll need what's in there, Riley. I hope it'll help…Henry, Takato…"  
"Yeah?" Henry and Takato ventured together.

"They…mustn't win. They (cough cough)…can't!"

Takato knew what he was asking for. "They won't!" he promised him.

Yamaki smiled at that, gave one last cough, and then lay still as blood ran from the corner of his mouth.

Matt cursed. Another death to blame himself for. He didn't dwell on it though. "Alright, let's go."  
Riley was appalled. "What?! We can't just leave him!"

"She's right. He saved my life!" Henry added. "He was a jerk but if it weren't for him it'd be me lying there!"  
"There's nothing we can do for him now," Matt shot back. "Unless we want to end up exactly like him we get out of here now. It's only a matter of time before they drill through the mess back there. So come on!"  
Both of them knew he spoke the truth. Taking one last look at her former boss, Riley picked up the briefcase and strode away with her head down. Henry soon followed her in a similar state with Terriermon trying to comfort him. "Momentai, Henry, momentai…"

"Matt?" Gabumon looked at his partner in some concern. Matt was staring intently at Yamaki's body.

"Let's go, Gabumon. We'll have to wait for another day to settle up with Necromon."

****

Hypnos building

"They've escaped again, my lord," A Tankmon reported. "They should have been stopped at the tunnel exit but most of our reserve troops were delayed."  
"Delayed how?" Necromon asked, his anger obviously showing.

"Some humans attacked them. These weren't regular humans either, we lost over 30 digimon."  
"Humans? How many?"

"4. Well 5, if you count the wolf creature they had with them."

"4 humans and 1…animal did all this?!" Daemon was incredulous. 

So was Necromon. "So they found some new allies. I want a full report on the attackers within the hour."  
"Yes, my lord." The Tankmon signed off.

"No matter, they've won this little skirmish but they'll win nothing more. Are the next wave of troops ready to cross over?"  
"Yes, my lord, they can cross over at any time."  
"Good, tell the castle to send them. It's time to move to the next phase of the invasion."

"What is the next phase?" Daemon asked.

"A massive assault to the north. The target is Tokyo," Necromon replied. "A lot of dead humans and it will be a great psychological blow to see the capital of the country in ruins, won't it?"

Daemon chuckled. "A pity you didn't return to the game sooner."

"Yes, run Digidestined. Run far away. The next time I'll deal with you personally…"

****

The MDB

"Welcome back," Gennai said. "I'm glad to see you all made it. I see you have a new Tamer too…"  
"What happened, Gennai?" Matt was a little on the angry side. "Where did you step out to? We lost some people because we got caught cold!"  
"Sorry Matt. Tai suggested we get some friends in and we had to move to another realm to do it. It worked though. They kept a lot of trouble away from you during that fight.

"He's right, Matt," Tai chipped in as he emerged from the MDB. "You'd have been buried in digimon if they hadn't been here. You and me might regret it later though…"  
"Tai!" Everyone was shocked and delighted to see him walking again.

"Tai? Is that the same Tai who's was on the T…mmmph!" Takato and Rika had to gag Kazu. Not being the smartest kid around, he'd only just realised who he was with.  
Kari could barely contain herself. "How did you get back on your feet so fast? Are you all ok now? Does that still hurt?" She looked at his scar worriedly.

"I'm ok," Tai assured her. "I had some help getting fixed up. He's over there."

Kari and the others looked round to see a man who could have passed for Matt's big brother, or even his father. Spiky blond hair, bright blue eyes, heavily muscled, a gigantic sword on his back and clad in a purple combat bodysuit. 

"Nice to see you again, Matt," Cloud Strife grinned. "I hope I haven't missed too much of the action!"

  
TO BE CONTINUED…


	6. Retreats and Reunions

Here's part 6 at long last. Sorry I'm not too regular with updates any more. My job doesn't allow me as much free time as I used to have. Don't worry though. I will finish all my fics sometime…

****

Dark Empire

6: Retreats and Reunions

The MDB

"Cloud?! How did you…Tai, don't tell me you…"

"What choice did we have, Matt?" Tai asked back. "I don't know anyone else with an army for rent or who's more powerful."

"You helped us take down Sephiroth before," Cloud pointed out. "We said we'd help out if you needed us. Besides we were getting bored anyway!"  
Kari's eyes widened. "We? The others are here too?"

"Some of them." A silver-haired man smoking a large cigar emerged from the MDB with what looked like a red wolf beside him.

"Tai shows up and tells us he's in some serious £$"! so we just dropped everything and came with what we had, which ain't !$^&*%! much!"

The Tamers and their friends and parents gaped in shock.

TK winced. "Nice to see you too, Cid." 

Tai sighed too. "You'll have to forgive him. He's real blunt and his language is uh…creative!"

There were more shocks to come.

"You 2 have grown since we last met!" the wolf creature, to the amazement of many, suddenly spoke.

"Good to see you again too, Red," Kari grinned.

"Ok, time out, time out!" Kazu was fed up with being left out. "Who are these guys?"

Tai quickly explained. "These are…old friends of ours; courtesy of Necromon. He sent us into another world to try and get rid of us 3 years ago. We met Cloud and his group then."

"Good thing you did or our world would be toast right now!"

A heavily muscled black man with a large gun on his right arm and a dark-haired girl had joined the party too. It had been the man who had spoken.

"Barret and Tifa! Maybe we still have some good luck after all!" Matt grinned.

Gennai leaned out of the MDB. "I hate to break up the reunion but that Necromon you're talking about? He's bound to send more digimon after us. We've got to get away from here!"

"Yeah, I can't imagine him being happy after we roasted 30 of em!" Barret grinned.

"How, Gennai?" Cody asked. "We can't get everyone in the MDB."  
Gennai quickly realised he was right. They'd rescued a lot of people from the park; it would take at least 10 trips in the MDB to transport them all away. Its power reserves wouldn't stand up to that.

"Do you have access to a radio or a phone?" Riley asked. "I think I can help."  
"In here," Gennai told her.

Riley quickly ran into the MDB with Gennai. 

"So how come you've got a digimon all of a sudden, Kazu?" Kenta asked jealously.

Kazu grinned. "What do you think? The digimon finally realised how much I rock!"  
Rika wasn't impressed. To make the point, she pulled Kazu's cap down over his eyes. "Oh, put a sock in it!"

****

Roof of Hypnos building

"How much longer must we wait?" Daemon asked impatiently. 

Metalseadramon wasn't too tolerant either. "Yeah. What are we still sitting here for? There's still plenty of humans to delete and I want to get back to my own turf if you know what I mean…"  
Necromon nodded. "Yes, I understand. But trust me. Once the building work here is complete, we'll have another ace up our sleeve. Let me show you the plans."

"Impressive," Daemon admitted. "But have we enough materials for all of this?"

"We should do by the end of tomorrow. I've assigned a whole group of Mechanorimon to the task along with the Drimogemon and the rest of the work crews. The towns we've captured to the north have given us a little more raw materials. The assault on Tokyo will go a lot more smoothly with this."

"You're not worried about human 'resistance', are you?" Daemon asked in disbelief.

"Not at all," Necromon grinned sadistically. "It's only the Digidestined and their friends that are any threat to us."

Thanks to the building's systems, he'd listened in to a few of the humans' conversations over the radio, Internet and TV links. One thing was clear from what he'd heard: the government was in a blind panic. Since they'd lost contact with Yamaki they were all acting like headless Kokatorimon. The humans did have one advantage: the satellites that kept spying on him every time they orbited overhead. In itself, that didn't worry him. But he knew that Gennai could tap in on those satellites too. It was time to take that advantage away for awhile. He reached for his communicator.

"Activate the Shroud!"

"Yes, my lord."

Soon all of West Shinjuku was immersed in a giant fog barrier. 

"That should buy us a little time."  
"I see," Daemon was amused. "An oldie but a goodie."  
"It worked for Myotismon, it'll work for us," Necromon smiled. "At least until we're ready!"

For the moment, the Digidestined were blinded and it didn't matter what the pathetic humans in Tokyo did now. By the time those fools realised what was happening he and the other Dark Masters would be paying them a visit…with about 2000 other digimon. All that remained was keeping the Digidestined out of the way.

"Machinedramon, since you love rat-catching, I'm sure you'll love my next suggestion. Hunt those brats down and keep them on the defensive. Make sure they can't interfere with the next stage of the plan. Oh and if you get the opportunity to destroy them, make it slow and painful, would you?"

****

The MDB

By now, Riley had managed to call for help from the government and had trucks sent over to collect most of the freed people from the town.

"Mr Gennai, what happens now?" 

"Just call me Gennai. What happens now is we leave and regroup…alone."

Riley didn't like the sound of that. "But I have to contact Tokyo for orders. If we're to win this we have to work…"  
"…Together?" Gennai was scornful. "I had a chat with Mr Wong. Your government hasn't exactly helped much has it? I'd rather keep the Digidestined and the Tamers out of their grip so they can't lose them like they did this city!"  
Riley winced at that, knowing he was right. Yamaki had been right too, in a way, when he'd called the big shots in Tokyo fools. They'd arrogantly stood off in Tokyo, expecting Yamaki to stop anything and everything that tried to bio-emerge. Riley now knew what pressure Yamaki must have been under and his desperation to solve the digimon 'problem'. Which reminded her, she was still holding his briefcase. 

Opening it up, she found a large stash of computer CDs and disks and a videotape. 

"Can I…"  
"Yes. This base comes fully equipped," Gennai grinned. "Bucket seats, radio, computers and a VCR system. If it's important we'd best have the whole team watch it. I'll make you a deal, Riley. We won't work for you but we will work with you. As you said, we're going to have to do that if we're to have any chance of winning."  
Riley nodded in agreement; knowing it was probably the best she was going to get. 

"Then let's get everyone aboard and get out of here."

Meanwhile Takato was having a problem of his own. Namely his overprotective mother. 

"Takato, there's nothing to talk about. You have to come with us!"  
"I can't Mom! My friends need Guilmon and me, the _world _needs us!"

His parents were still trying to get their heads around all that had happened. West Shinjuku had been invaded and decimated by digimon who weren't supposed to be real, Takato was a Tamer and now had a red dinosaur with him and to top it all, he was staying to fight the digimon invaders against overwhelming odds.

"Son, you and Guilmon have done all you can," his Dad butted in. "Maybe you should leave it to the army, they'll know what to do."  
Gennai came out of the MDB at that point and overheard the last part. "I hate to burst your bubble, Mr Matsuki, but the army has already tried. Last I heard they were reeling backward after losing 90% of their group, courtesy of Machinedramon."

Takato sighed. "See, Dad? We're the only ones who can stand up to them!"

Takato's Mom couldn't believe it. "You expect us to let our only son go back and get killed fighting those…things?"  
Gennai hated this but he knew what he had to do. "Would you prefer to turn this world over to Necromon and his thugs without even a fight?"

"It's that serious?" Rika's Grandma was aghast. 

"It's that serious," Gennai said bluntly. "You saw what happened in the city. Draw your own conclusions." 

"I hate to admit it too but he's right," Riley added. "I saw some of it back at the Hypnos building. Gunships, tanks, bombs…they're like toys against them!"

Just then Kazu, who had been experimenting with his new digivice, suddenly started to get a lot of readings on it. "Hey Chumly, what's with all these signals on this thing?"

Takato didn't like the sound of that so he checked his digivice. His worst fears were confirmed. "There's another load of digimon coming in!"

"Right, everyone into the MDB! We're leaving now," Gennai ordered.

Kazu quickly realised he had a problem. "How am I going to get Guardromon through that door?"

"You don't," Gennai replied quickly. "Take him round the back and I'll open the storage bay. Both of you get in that way."

"It's getting like the Black Hole of Calcutta in here!" Mr Wong complained as everyone piled into the MDB. For all the mobile base's size, it was now getting overcrowded with the Digidestined, the Tamers, their digimon, their parents and friends and Cloud's group. 

"If you're not sitting down, try and hold on to something," Gennai warned. "This could be rough!"

"What's here could be rough too!" Yolei was shaking in terror and for good reason. Machinedramon had come out of the trees and stood in front, illuminated by the MDB's headlights. 

"Well, well, catching these rats was easier than I thought. All nicely done up in one package too. How ridiculously easy!"

"Gennai!" Tai warned.

"No time to set precise co-ordinates. Oh well, anywhere's better than here, right?" He reached for the start button.

"Time's up, Digidestined!" Machinedramon cackled as he powered up his guns. "Giga Cannon!"  
Machinedramon shot out a tidal wave of energy at the MDB…just as it dematerialised and moved elsewhere. Much to Machinedramon's chagrin, all he'd succeeded in doing was blowing up a small section of woodland.

****

150 miles south-west of West Shinjuku

In the end, the MDB materialised on the top of a hill in open country. 

"Man, that was too close!" Matt sighed as everyone piled out of the base.

"Hey, can someone let us out of here!" screamed a voice from the back of the MDB.

Takato grinned. "Kazu's still stuck in there, Gennai."

Terriermon couldn't resist it. "Maybe we should leave him there for awhile, we'd get a lot more peace and quiet around here."

"Terriermon!" Henry groaned.

"However tempting it is let's get him out," Matt grinned. "We might need him at the next fight."

"What was that thing that nearly cooked us? A metal dinosaur on steroids?" Barret asked.

"That was Machinedramon," Gennai answered. "A very powerful and very malignant digimon. He's also one of the 4 leaders of this invasion. We haven't seen the last of him."

"You got that right," Tai added as he let Kazu and Guardromon out of the rear storage bay. "Hey, isn't that…?"  
Tai had noticed a Mechanorimon in the bay alongside where Guardromon had stood.

"Yes, it's the same one I stole from the Dark Masters all those years ago," Gennai explained. "If you need help, I'll come out to fight with you if necessary."

"Not until tomorrow, I hope," Takato yawned. 

"He's right, I'm beat," Kenta added.

"We could barely travel in that thing. I don't even want to think about us all sleeping in it!" Riley complained.

"We've got some tents and we're used to roughing it," Cloud said. "Our lot can sleep outside."  
Kazu chipped in. "That storage bay's pretty big, but the floor's not too cosy."

Rika's Mom wasn't done complaining. "Can't we get to a hotel?"  
Tai groaned. "You want to walk 5 miles more now? It's near midnight!"

"Matt, give me a hand and let's get some more beds set up," Gennai stated. "We'll finish this conversation tomorrow…"  


****

Later that night

It had taken some doing, especially with Kazu celebrating that he had a partner now, but eventually everyone had gotten off to sleep. Gennai checked cautiously to see that everyone was, then he walked away a short distance and activated his own private portal back to the Digital World for a special meeting. Namely with one of the 4 Sovereigns, Azulongmon.

"You look annoyed, Gennai. I can't say I blame you."

"Annoyed doesn't even begin to cover it! How was this ever allowed, Azulongmon?"

"Even my dominion doesn't extend into the Dark Ocean, Gennai. I didn't know that Necromon was still alive any more than you did. He fooled us all unfortunately. There was nothing I could do to stop this, but you might still have a chance."

"A million to one chance, Azulongmon? How can we possibly stand up to something like this, even all together as we are?" 

"Learn from your new allies' example. They have more experience of this kind of fighting than you. Whether you believe it or not, you can still achieve victory. The new Dark Masters are not invincible despite what they'd like you to think. You just have to find the right targets. Now go, your friends need your guidance."

__

Enigmatic as ever, Gennai thought angrily. But he was puzzled too. What made Azulongmon so confident in him and his friends? The smart money would be on Necromon and Daemon now, surely? 

He was so deep in thought as he stepped through the portal back that he didn't notice the reception committee waiting for him.

"Road trip, Gennai?"

Gennai looked up to see Matt, Tai and Cloud waiting for him. All of them were sporting a few cuts and bruises. Matt and Tai, though, looked like they'd gone 5 rounds each with Evander Holyfield. 

"What happened to you?!" Gennai spluttered. 

"Just a 'little' training session!" Matt grumbled, shooting a frigid glance at Tai and Cloud as he did so.

Cloud had been eager to see if Tai and Matt had kept up their fighting skills since they'd left his world 3 years ago so he challenged them in hand to hand. Despite having a 2 to 1 advantage Tai and Matt had still come out second best, which was obvious from the rivers of blood that ran down their faces. 

"Hang on," Cloud quickly used a Cure technique and erased all their wounds. "Don't feel too bad. I may have beaten you, but you're still good!"  
"Nice to hear that," Tai sighed. "So where did you go, Gennai?"  
"Just to the Digital World for a chat with Azulongmon. He was taken by surprise just as we were with this invasion. But he still thinks we can win."  
"How?" Matt didn't bother to hide his scepticism. 

"I wondered that myself. He said Cloud and his group were important, that they had more experience. Whatever that means."  
Cloud was a little confused. "We've never fought digimon until yesterday but…oh, I think I see what he meant. It's going to be that kind of war, is it? Lucky for us!"   
"What's that supposed to mean? You've got a plan?" Tai asked.  
"I'll tell you in a minute when everyone else wakes up," Cloud said. "We can win this, Tai. But it's going to be a long fight…"

****

Outside the MDB: next morning

Gennai called everyone together at the first opportunity in the morning. Tai started the ball rolling. 

"Ok, Cloud. What's this great plan you've got to beat Necromon?"  
"Who said anything about a great plan? I don't have anything like that. If you're looking for a quick win, keep dreaming. That's not going to happen."

"How do we win then?" Henry asked worriedly. "How can we possibly beat all those digimon?"  
Cloud shrugged his shoulders. "We can't. So we don't even try to do that. What we've got to do is hit their war machine where it'll hurt them…and then escape before they know we're there."

"Guerrilla war," Riley realised.

"Exactly, we've got to fight on our terms. If we play the game by their rules, we'll lose. It's the way we beat Shinra; it's the way we've got to go now. It may take a long time though."

Yolei then asked the leading question. "So what do we do first?"  
"Simple, we cut off their supply line."

"What he means is we go back to the Dark Ocean and destroy his dimension gates and whatever else we can," Gennai said. "We can't possibly win while they keep bringing over more dark digimon. I noticed another 1000 come across last night before they put up the fog barrier."  
"Fog barrier?" Cody asked.

"Somehow they put up a massive fog barrier around West Shinjuku overnight. Even the satellites can't penetrate it. It's just like Myotismon's barrier around Odaiba."

"They're up to something…something they don't want us to know about!" Henry realised.

"Exactly," Cloud agreed. "So we've got to split up. One group goes to the castle, one group checks the city out."  
"How are we going to check the city out? We just ran out of there, remember?" Kazu wasn't keen on going back. 

"We sneak in. Before the fog barrier went up, I detected a lot of Mechanorimon coming and going from the city. It looked like they had cargo containers on their backs. If we find out where they're coming from…"  
"We can sneak in with the cargo…whatever it is," Matt realised. "But Gennai, that means…"  
"Yes, I'll have to go with group 2 with my Mechanorimon. Don't worry, I'm no stranger to battle." 

"So who goes where?" Yolei asked.

"Red XIII and Tifa are going with me to the castle," Cloud decided. "Barret, you and Cid stay here and give the others some back up." 

"I've got to go with Cloud's group," Ken said. "I'm the only one who can open a portal to the Dark Ocean anyway."

In the end, all the new Digidestined decided to go with Cloud. Tai, Matt and the Tamers would stay behind. 

"Everyone who's going to the castle get aboard," Gennai said. "I won't be long, Tai. I'll drop them off back home and come right back."  
"Got it, Gennai. See you in a few." 

****

Digital World: Gennai's house

"So what's the plan, Cloud? Have you got one in mind?" TK asked.

"He always did before!" Patamon reminded him.

"First we go and collect this new leader of yours, Davis wasn't it?"  
"But Davis was hurt badly, that'll be a problem," Yolei broke in.  
Cloud grinned. "This worked for Tai," he pointed to the Materia in his sword, "so that's no problem at all."

"He'll be glad to see us," Kari smiled.

"He'll be more glad just to see you, Kari!" Gatomon teased. 

"Cute, Gatomon!" TK didn't look amused. Nor did Kari, come to that.

"If we're done playing around, shall we go home?" Cody asked.

Yolei agreed. "Good idea, Digiport open!"  


****

Tamer World

"What do you think, Tai? Can we win this? We've never been up against this much power before."  
"We've won everything else, Matt. We can't start thinking like that!"

"He's right!" Gabumon chipped in. "If we do, Necromon has already won."

Matt nodded. "What do you think of these Tamers? You think they're good enough?" 

"You have to ask that after last night? They're real good. So's Takato's taste in clothes!"

Matt rolled his eyes at that. So did Agumon and Gabumon.  
"Tai, Cloud could have got rid of that with his magic too," Cid pointed to Tai's scar. "Why didn't he?"  
"I asked him not to."  
Matt didn't ask the obvious question. It was written all over his face.

Tai sighed. "I wanted to keep it to remind me never to do something so stupid again!" 

"It sounds hard to believe, but you probably did the right thing."

Tai looked round to find Riley and the Tamers listening in. 

"I saw your fight with them from our building before it went down."

"How come you couldn't stop them?" Henry asked Riley.

"We tried. Somehow they slipped a cascade virus into our computer systems: knocked out everything. We couldn't stop them."

"Neither could we," Tai said apologetically.

"What happened, before they came here I mean," Takato asked gently.

Tai and Matt explained it all. Their unexpected trip to Cloud's world and their encounter with Sephiroth, the Dark Master Civil War and then the sudden re-emergence of Necromon. 

"You fought this loony before?" Kazu couldn't believe it. "And he's still alive?"  
"We fought him and lost, Piedmon was supposed to have killed him," Matt corrected. "That was how Tai and me got to take a swim in the Lifestream and ended up like this!" Matt flexed his large muscles to make the point.

Takato and the others had wondered about that. The Tai and Matt they'd seen on TV hadn't come with Schwarzenegger physiques and glowing eyes. 

"And 3 years later TK and the others fight him; and they lose too," Matt added grimly. "And Kazu? Loony is one thing he isn't."

"Yeah, unfortunately," Tai didn't sound much better.

At that moment, Gennai and the MDB rematerialised on the hilltop.

"What happened, Gennai? You were longer than we thought."  
"Sorry, I had to recharge the base. Everything's ready now though."  
"Which reminds me," Riley said. "Can we see that tape now?"

"Sure. If you're up to it, that is."

Riley nodded. She was as ready as she was ever going to be.  
"Tape? What tape?" Rika asked.

"I think it'll explain itself," Riley replied.

Gennai loaded the tape into the MDB's VCR, and Yamaki's image appeared on the screen. There were sounds of battle and explosions in the background and everyone realised the tape must have been recorded just before the city fell.

"Riley; if you're viewing this tape it will mean that I'm probably dead and the city has fallen to the digimon force that came out of nowhere today. If I am gone now, then command of Hypnos is yours. In that case is all of the research that we ever conducted. Unfortunately if they've accessed our files, they will know all about it too, but it might be of some help."

Riley was amazed. She'd never expected anything like this.

"I'm also able to give you some advice, Riley. Don't bother with those fools in Tokyo, unless you have to. You probably have more intelligence than all of them put together. They're probably panicking mindlessly as I speak. One other thing, find those kids and do whatever it takes to get them on our side. You'll find their profiles on the disks. As much as I hate to admit it, they've had more success against rogue digimon lately than we've ever had. We're going to need every effective weapon we can get in the fight to come. I'll let you in on a secret: I practically wished for something like this to happen, just so I could stop this once and for all. Now I know the real meaning of 'be careful what you wish for'…good luck at clearing up the mess I made, Riley. I know you'll do a better job than I have. Good luck."

"He wasn't such a bad guy after all," Henry had come to realise that in recent days.

"No, he was just overworked and overzealous," Riley said. "We all were."

As the tape finished, Gennai had started scanning a few of the disks. "It's going to take some time to go through all this data. Plus we know it's compromised if Necromon set up shop in your building."

"I'll stay in the base and look over it," Mr Wong offered. "Maybe there's something in it we can use."  
"Meanwhile, shall we get going?" Cid asked. "We've got some spying and digimon ass-kicking to do!"

"I'll get the base ready to go again."

****

Necromon's castle: breeding and enhancement chambers

Back in the Dark Ocean realm, 2 Hahgurumon controllers were monitoring one tank with increasing alarm.

"I know this one wanted to digivolve…but I didn't think he'd go _this _far. How much has he absorbed?"  
"Over 90%! This is impossible!"  
What they were seeing said otherwise. There wasn't a lot of Dark Ocean water left in the tank.

"Release him quickly before he overloads on the power!"

"YES! Now this is what I'm talking about!"  
Both Hahgurumon couldn't believe what was emerging from the tank.

He was man-sized, wore biker clothing, carried 2 large shotguns and his hands had sharp claws attached.

"Wait till those losers get a load of me! Wait till they feel the wrath of BEELZEMON!"

TO BE CONTINUED… 

  



	7. Carrier of Doom part 1

****

Dark Empire

7: Carrier of Doom (part 1)

The MDB 

As everyone else prepared the MDB for departure, Riley was getting acquainted with the onboard computer systems. To help pass the time she was recording her own personal journal.

"…I can't believe it's only been a day since this nightmare began. Normally I'd have been thrilled to get a promotion like this but with my boss dead and the world falling apart, I can't find much reason to celebrate. From what we've been able to find out from the satellites, the dark digimon have captured several towns surrounding West Shinjuku but haven't gone much further than that. While that's a relief, Gennai thinks this halt is only temporary, and I'm sure he's right. What I can't understand is why this hasn't appeared on the news. What I've been seeing on TV is outright lies: stories of a 'shattering earthquake' and 'people hallucinating'! Why the cover-up? Is the government confident of ending this quickly? How and with what? I'd contact Tokyo and ask but I'm not keen to do that. Like my newfound friends I don't trust them anymore. While it's nice to think the government's got a weapon that can end this quickly, given my experience with Yamaki and the past few days, there's a part of me that just knows better…"

"Ready to go?"

Riley looked round to see Matt and Gabumon. She shut off the recorder.

"I'm as ready as I'll ever be. What's the plan?"  
"We teleport into the 'occupied zone', then Gennai sneaks us inside West Shinjuku from there."  
"How?" 

Matt shrugged. "We'll find that out when we get there. The Tamers are just parting ways with their parents outside, then we'll go."

Outside the base, Takato's parents were realising the awful truth…their son was really going back to fight. 

"I wish you didn't have to do this, son," his dad was saying. "But we won't stop you. Just promise us one thing: come back in one piece."

Takato wiped away a small tear from one eye quickly. "I promise, Dad."  
"So you're Guilmon, huh? Now I understand the 'Guilmon bread' your friends wanted me to make. When I get a new bakery I'm going to need a lot of dough for this!"

"I wish we could go with you, Henry," his mom said.

Gennai sounded apologetic. "Sorry Mrs Wong, sorry to all of you. But your husband and your children have skills and digimon that the world needs. You don't unfortunately. But try not to worry, they've faced battle before and come out alive every time."

"Yeah, and this time we're watching their backs too," Barret grinned, arming his gun-arm as he did so.

"Ok, everyone who's going get aboard," Cid said. "Time we got this show on the road."

****

General Hospital: Odaiba

Davis Motomiya wasn't in the best of moods. The world was facing a new nightmare; his friends were all out fighting and where was he? Flat on his back in a hospital ward. The wounds he'd taken from the Gattlomon hadn't healed yet. The doctor had been amazed when he'd seen the extent of Davis' injuries. He was lucky to be alive according to him.

Davis didn't agree. What use was he stuck here? Davis had gone to sleep that night feeling more and more depressed all the time. 

He got quite a shock when he woke up in the arms of a large blond-haired man with a great sword on his back. Even more amazing: all his wounds were gone!

"Hey Davis! Good to see you again!" Demiveemon flew into his arms. 

Cloud smiled. "When we get back I'm going to have to ask Tai how many clones he has!"

"Feeling better, Davis?" 

Davis suddenly realised he was back at Tai and Kari's flat and it was Kari that had spoken. "Uh, I'm good, Kari. But who are these guys?"  
TK grinned. "Cloud, Tifa, Red, meet Davis. Davis, meet our old friends from 3 years ago."  
Davis' eyes bulged at that. TK and Kari had told him all about that before but he figured they were exaggerating. Looking at the 3 powerful figures in front of him told him differently.

"Wolf got your tongue?" Red chuckled.

"We can save the jokes for later," Cloud said seriously. "We've got a job to do and another world to save. We'll fill everyone in as we go."

Davis saw that it wasn't just his team in the apartment. Sora, Joe and Izzy were there too with their digimon. "Cloud, You never change," Joe grinned. 

"With luck we can get back into the castle at the same point that TK went in last time. But…"

"But we still might have trouble," TK guessed. "Just because Necromon isn't there anymore…"

"…Doesn't mean we'll get a free lunch," Cloud finished. "But is everyone ready to try it anyway?"

"Am I ever!" Davis quickly got to his feet. "Let's go!"  
Davis was definitely back in action…

****

20 miles north of West Shinjuku

"This is where we get in from?" Henry asked with a puzzled look on his face. 

"A lot of convoys have been going to West Shinjuku from here," Gennai said. He was sitting in the cockpit of his Mechanorimon. "I don't know what's in them, but this is probably the best way to sneak back into the city."

Below them was a large factory complex. Truck sized metal containers were being lifted out and flown toward West Shinjuku by Mechanorimon. 

"So many! What's in those things and what does he want with all of it?"

"Maybe it's full of food and they're hungry, Takatomon," Guilmon offered. 

Takato sighed. "Can't you stop thinking about food for one minute, Guilmon?"

"Matt, I've got an idea," Tai said with a grin. 

Matt rolled his eyes. Tai's 'ideas' normally didn't come to much or they made things even worse. "What is it?"

"If we can get rid of one of those Mechanorimon, Gennai could bring his down, couple onto one of those things and we've got a free ride!"

For once Matt had to admit; Tai had come up with a good plan!

"That's good but how do we do that without giving ourselves away?" Henry worried. "There's too many to fight and if we're found out…"

"Hold on," Gennai opened a channel from his Mechanorimon. "Riley, can you hear me?"

Riley, Kenta and Jeri were all still aboard the MDB. "I'm here, Gennai. According to the satellites, your best approach is from the North. There's hardly any guards there and you've got good access to the containers."

"Thanks Riley. Stay in touch." He turned back to the others. "Shall we?"

****

Necromon's castle

With Necromon and most of his army gone, it was a lot quieter at the large castle. Nonetheless, there were still a lot of Champion and Ultimate guards patrolling and progress had been slow. They'd 'fixed' two dimension gates but that was all. 

"Can't you get a better idea on this place's layout, Izzy?" Red asked as they sneaked across an open-air courtyard.

"Sorry but I can't," Izzy replied as he worked on his laptop. "I can only get a general layout. There's too many places where the other gates and breeding chambers could be."

Cloud cursed. "We'll just have to check them all and hope we get lucky."

"Are you sure those bombs of yours will work, Cloud?" Biyomon wondered. "We could digivolve and destroy them ourselves."

"We made plenty of those in our fight with Shinra," Tifa answered for him. "They blew Mako reactors sky high, they'll do the same for the gates and breeding chambers here. Trust me."

"Plus if you did digivolve, you'd probably set off every alarm in this place!" Cloud added.

"That's if we can ever FIND them!" Davis muttered impatiently. "You'd think it'd be…"  
"HAHAHAHA! I can't wait till I meet those Tamer losers again!"

"We'll send you back as soon as possible…Beelzemon, wasn't it?"

Cody panicked. "Someone's coming!" 

"You think?" Davis snorted. "Get behind here quick!"

Everyone ducked behind some pillars as the voices got closer… 

****

Factory complex

"Man, why do we always get into a tight situation?" Tai sighed.

His plan had gone, surprisingly, without a hitch. Gennai, with a Twin Beam and a little help from Kazu and Guardromon, managed to destroy a dark Mechanorimon without being seen and then coupled his own Mechanorimon onto one of the cargo containers. Then the others had managed to sneak into the container, or squeezed would have been a better term. The container was piled high with metal sheets, rivets and plating. 

"Can't you loosen up on me, you big lugnut?!" Kazu whined at Guardromon. 

"Sorry, Kazu, I wasn't designed for this."

"Everyone alright back there?" Gennai's voice seemed to come out of nowhere. Then Rika noticed the camera that hung at one end of the container. 

"Gennai? Can you hear us up there?"  
"I can see you and hear you," Gennai replied. "If you come up to this end you can do the same. This isn't primarily a cargo container: it's a digimon carrier that's been modified. I think this was Necromon's first attempt at an MDB type dimension carrier. He probably couldn't get the engine design right."

Henry and Terriermon were the first to get through the piles of metal to find a command console and 3 small TV screens at the front. The controls on the console were plainly designed for a Hahgarumon's gears. 

"Gennai, I don't think we can work this thing," Henry told him.   
"You don't have to. I'm going to feed the image on my screens to yours. You'll be able to see what's outside. Brace yourselves, I'm taxiing round for takeoff. I've just accepted the pre-set flight program they've sent."

"I hope that was a good idea," Barret muttered. "Accepting one of their programs, that is."  
"How would it have looked if we hadn't you stupid $£&!" Cid scorned him.

"Brace yourselves, we're taking off!" Gennai warned.

Everyone braced themselves in time…except for Guardromon, who lost his balance, smashed his head on one of the piles of plating and fell on top of Kazu.

****

Necromon's castle 

"Who's this?" Red whispered.

"Don't know. We've never seen him before," Joe whispered back.

Izzy tried scanning Beelzemon but had no luck. "Can't get any reading on him." 

"Can everyone put a sock in it so I can hear what they're saying?" Davis muttered angrily.

They all grudgingly quietened down to listen in.

"…back. But the gates need an hour or so to recharge."

"Then get recharging!" Beelzemon roared. "Now I'm digivolved I'm a busy businessmon with many values and patience ain't one of them!"

The Hahgarumon zipped away down the corridor as fast as their gears could take them.

Shaking his head in annoyance, Beelzemon followed them slowly. 

"That digimon looks like trouble!" Tentomon shivered as the group came out of hiding.

Izzy gulped as his digimon analyser finally made a breakthrough. "More trouble than I thought! Beelzemon: Mega level! His attacks are Double Impact and Darkness Claw!"

"Great. Just what we needed, another Dark Mega," Gomamon quipped.

"Then let's get a move on so we don't have to face him," Cloud advised. "Didn't that guy say he was just digivolved?"

"Yeah, so?" Davis didn't quite get it.

"So he must have come from the breeding and digivolution chambers!" Izzy realised.  
"Right! Let's go!"

The group quickly went in the direction that Beelzemon had come from, not seeing the security camera that hung from the ceiling on that particular corridor…

****

The MDB

"Are they ok? Having to watch all this from back here is killing me!" Kenta was complaining.

"They're fine so far, Kenta. But it's still early days yet." Riley turned back to her monitors. "They're still 3 miles out of the city. Gennai?"

"What is it, Riley?" Gennai replied over the communicator.

"I've just thought of something, what kind of metal is in that container?"

"Good point. Henry?"

"Hold on, Gennai. I'm scanning it over now…good grief!"

"What is it?"  
"It's titanium but it's been mixed with chromedigizoid alloy!"

"What, are they planning to armour their digimon with this stuff?" Cid offered.

"No, they want it for something else," Gennai guessed. "Get ready though, the city's coming up."

"The fog barrier's still up, Gennai. Once you get in there, you'll be cut off from us!"

"I know, Riley. But we've got to go anyway, wish us luck."

****

On the edge of West Shinjuku

Gennai and his team could now see the massive fog barrier through their cameras. 

"I wonder what that stuff really is?" Takato asked. 

"Can't say, it defies all analysis," Gennai replied, switching on all his cameras and scanners. 

There seemed to be no digimon on the floor of the city now. It seemed they'd abandoned it altogether.

"What, are they out to lunch or something?" Barret snorted. "I thought there were thousands here."

"What? Lunch?"  
"Not now, Guilmon!" Takato groaned. 

"They're still here somewhere," Tai was definitely worried by this. There was nothing in the streets or the park now, just desolate ruins, thin layers of mist and a cold wind.

Two large towers suddenly appeared out of the mist at the front.

Everyone recognised them. "That's Riley and Yamaki's building," Henry said.

Renamon appeared suddenly next to Rika, startling her. "Renamon, what is it?"   
"There's something nearby, something big!"  
"What kind of something?" Matt asked. 

"I don't know, but it's powerful."

"Matt, what's that?" Gabumon pointed to one of the camera screens. Something was coming out of the mist near the roof of the Hypnos building and the other Mechanorimon were headed straight for it.

"I…don't believe it!" Gennai was amazed and aghast.

Neither could any of the others. It was the largest thing they'd ever seen in the air. Huge, black, bat-shaped and it seemed to stretch out further than the eye could see. If the skies had been clear it would have blocked the sun out for a quarter of the city. 

"Any…idea what that is, Agumon?" Tai finally managed to find his voice again.

"No, Tai. We've never seen anything like it here or in the digital world!"

"There's nothing on the sensors!" Gennai spluttered.

He was right. According to the Mechanorimon's radar, sonar and other sensors, the huge craft did not exist. Yet they were still picking up the other Mechanorimon around them.

Cid was grim. "So no one outside knows it's there…"  
"Right," Matt agreed. "It's like a stealth plane only a lot bigger."

"More like a stealth air fortress," Henry added. "Imagine what they could do with something like this…"

"I'd sooner not!" Rika joined in. "They could go anywhere and anytime and no one would know they were coming!"

Barret grinned. "Then we've gotta make sure it doesn't go anywhere. Gennai, can you get us inside?"  
"Just where I'm going," Gennai said as he steered toward an opening in the side. "I just hope we know what we're doing…"

****

Necromon's castle: breeding chambers

Cloud's team was also in awe at that moment in time as they looked over the breeding chambers.

"Unbelievable!" Izzy said.

"Not prodigious for once, Izzy?" Red teased.

"Trust me when I say there's nothing prodigious about this, Red," Izzy replied. "This is pure evil. Look at it. Necromon's been stealing digieggs from Primary Village and immersing them in the Dark Ocean. No wonder these digimon turned out so bad, they're totally made up of dark emotions!"

Kari had been shaking as soon as she'd entered the room. She didn't know how but she knew that this was the case already. She could sense feelings from digimon and she'd felt nothing but anger, fear, hate and the like from Necromon's troops.

Cloud wasn't wasting time. "Well, what are we standing around for? Let's blow it up and go home."

However, as he and Tifa started to rig up the charges, they were interrupted.

"Well, looky here, Christmas has come early! I really wanted some practice before I met my old friends and look what shows up!"  
Beelzemon stood in the doorway with both shotguns out. "Let's get this party going with a few firecrackers! Double Impact!"  
Everyone hit the deck as Beelzemon's shots flew over their heads…and smashed several of the breeding tanks into oblivion. 

Davis was now getting mad. "I'm getting sick of these freaks! Veemon, let's…"

"No! Let us handle this!" Cloud was grinning as he stood up along with Tifa and Red XIII. "Hey biker boy, my old mother could shoot better than that, and she's been dead 7 years!"

"Why you…DOUBLE IMPACT!"

His next shots were no more successful, at least for his side. Cloud and co dodged again and he destroyed another array of breeding tanks.

"What's the matter, you freak? Need us to stand still before you can hit anything?"  
Cloud's taunts were making Beelzemon see red. "Alright, how'd you like this?" he ran straight at Cloud. "Darkness Claw!"

Cloud couldn't get his guard up quickly enough and was slammed to the floor.

"Not so cocky now, are ya?"   
"I'm just getting warmed up…Shadow Flare!" Cloud fired off a crippling attack he'd learned from a WEAPON unit years ago. A wave of dark energy surrounded Beelzemon, who suddenly felt like he was in the heart of a furnace. 

Tifa quickly followed this up with a high level Bolt attack and Beelzemon collapsed, smoking, after being struck by heavy lightning bolts.

"Ken, you know what to do." 

"I'm already on it." 

Beelzemon struggled to his feet and raised a shotgun. "We're…not…done yet!"

"I'm afraid you are." Red XIII bit down hard on Beelzemon's hand. Beelzemon screamed in pain, dropped the shotgun and tried to knock Red away only to be kicked in the head by Tifa and sent back to the ground again.

"Alright, let's go," Cloud said as Ken finished opening the portal. As Tifa and Red ran for the portal, Cloud sneered at Beelzemon. "You're supposed to be a Mega? Mega useless, more like!"

This got Beelzemon MAD and he started running flat out at Cloud. "I'll show you useless!"

Cloud sighed. "A slow learner too. ULTIMA!"

Cloud unleashed a huge mass of green flame with the force of a nuclear explosion behind it. Beelzemon was sent flying through the air and went straight through a breeding tank and the wall behind. 

"Cloud, let's go! More company's coming!" Tifa warned. She pressed the button on the bomb detonator as she headed for the portal. "Ten seconds, everyone go!"

Beelzemon staggered to his feet…just in time to see everyone dive into the portal home…and then the breeding room blow up in his face.

****

Digimon Supercarrier

The giant air carrier seemed even bigger inside than it did outside. The landing bay was bigger than two football fields and had several conveyor belts at one end. The Mechanorimon were landing with their containers nearby.

"Bad news. Look who's directing the unloading here."  
Gennai wasn't wrong. Arachnomon was directing the Mechanorimon to the unloading conveyors and the Tyrannomon workers who were starting to unload the metal.

"I'd love to step on that spider sometime," Rika muttered. 

"You and me both," Tai added. "But it'll have to wait."

"What's he doing?" Cid had noticed Arachnomon go over to a communicator panel and activate it. There was no mistaking the figure on the screen: Necromon.

"Can we listen in?" Henry asked.

"One second, I'll try and get their frequency…got it!"

"…should be ready within the hour," Arachnomon was saying.

"Make sure it is. I don't want the schedule disrupted anymore than it already has!" Necromon sounded angry.

"Has something happened, my lord?"  
"Those accursed Digidestined and their friends have happened. They sneaked into the castle and destroyed the enhancement chambers and half the dimension gates! I'm going to have to slow the pace until I can rebuild them. They and their new friends are becoming more than just a nuisance!"

"At least we are in a position to do some serious damage now, my lord. With these carriers we can go where we will. Nothing is beyond our reach. We can make sure this world pays a high price for their success."

"And pay it they will," Necromon laughed nastily. "The human government is overconfident. You should hear the humans' news broadcasts. They call our invasion an 'earthquake'! I'll show them what an earthquake really is soon enough. Once the next phase is complete, every human on this world will know the truth and will tremble in fear!"  
"After today, it will be impossible for them to ignore us!" Arachnomon joined in the laughter. "We'll be operational within the hour and we'll catch up with you as soon as we can."  
"Get a move on then. Machinedramon and his troops are impatient to start."

Matt didn't like the sound of that conversation. "Start what? What are they up to now?"

"Whatever it is, they'll be needing this carrier. If we can wreck it…" Rika was grinning as she said this.

"Just what I was thinking. You and me are going to get along just fine," Barret joined her.

"Ok, hold on," Gennai warned. I'll see if I can set down somewhere where you can get out of that container unseen."

Gennai had a sinking feeling about this; that they'd all got in over their heads on this one. Cloud had done some damage at the castle, but his group now had to destroy a virtual air fortress whilst evading god knows how many digimon doing it and all in less than an hour before it went online. This was becoming more than mission impossible, more like mission insane. Gennai just hoped their luck would hold…

TO BE CONTINUED…


	8. Carrier of Doom part 2

I can answer most of the review questions right now. Yes, Ryo and Cyberdramon will be in this fic but not quite yet. So will the other Devas and the Sovereigns, you can find out what they're up to in this part. I don't think I'm going to use the D-Reaper, I never liked it much anyway. Don't worry though, the fate of the Tamer world and others will be in the balance before the end of the fic. I hope that covers most of it…meanwhile enjoy!

****

Dark Empire

8 Carrier of Doom (part 2)

****

Digimon Supercarrier

Fortunately, most of the dark digimon were preoccupied with unloading other containers and didn't notice the group as they slipped out of theirs. Gennai had parked at the very end of the bay, and being the last Mechanorimon to arrive he would also be unloaded last. 

"Any idea where to go?" Henry asked.

"You're asking me?" Tai sweatdropped as he said this. 

"None of us have a real clue so we're just going to have to wing it," Rika realised. "And hope we don't get caught."

Renamon had been sneaking around the bay looking for ways out. She came back with good news. "There's 3 corridors out of here. 2 are behind spider-boy and the others over there but the other one should be clear."

"Only one problem though: the $!"%*&$ big tin can here!" Cid pointed at Guardromon. "How are we going to sneak something like him around?"

"I can be stealthy if I need to be!" Guardromon replied indignantly.

"We'll have to take his word for it, we can't leave anyone here," Takato pointed out.

"Alright, then let's do it," Tai decided. "Head for the corridor 2 at a time and stay low!"

****

Digital World: Zhuqiaomon's realm

Meanwhile in the digital world, Zhuqiaomon, the phoenix type Sovereign who had until recently been sending the Deva digimon into West Shinjuku was hearing his first reports of Necromon's invasion from the monkey Deva, Makuramon. The other remaining Devas were also present.

"Are you sure of this? The humans and these Tamers are being defeated?"

"Indeed they are," Makuramon gloated. "With this sort of power against them they have no chance of winning. The wretched humans' installation was also overrun. They'll no longer be able to pollute our world now and soon they'll cease to exist. Wonderful news, isn't it?"

Makuramon had expected Zhuqiaomon to be happy. He was completely wrong.

"It must NEVER happen!" 

"What? But master, I thought you'd be thrilled…the humans finally defeated and annihilated…"

"I was never interested in wiping out the humans, only in safeguarding our world from their incursions," Zhuqiaomon snapped. "And having the Dark Masters back in existence is hardly what I would consider to be good news."

Catsuramon, the dog Deva, was also scornful. "All that time in the human world must have affected that simian brain of yours. Once the Dark Masters are finished with the humans, who do you think they'll turn on next?"

"I was imprisoned by them once, it will never happen again!" Zhuqiaomon promised. "Therefore desperate measures are now called for; we must aid the human Tamers against our common enemy…"  
Makuramon was aghast. "AID humans? Master, I don't think I can…"  
He got no further as Zhuqiaomon stomped his claw down next to him and knocked him flying.

"You will at least try! If the Dark Masters return here they will imprison all of the Sovereigns again and I will no longer have any control here. If that happens you will have no purpose either. Do I make myself clear?"  
All of the Devas quickly agreed. Zhuqiaomon in a rage was never a pleasant experience.

"Right. Makuramon, since you've proved an effective spy up to now, return to the humans' world and keep an eye on the dark army's progress."  
"At once, Sovereign!"  
"Muhiramon, Vikaralamon, you two will go out and assemble every digimon you can find in my realm, we will probably need them later. Tell them the Dark Masters are planning a return, that should spur them into action." 

As the Dragon and Pig Devas left Zhuqiaomon considered his options. He hadn't got very many except...

"Catsuramon, take Antylamon and find those Tamers. If they are to succeed they will need a power boost and, as distasteful as the idea sounds, I think it will be wise for me to provide it. Report back to me once you find them."

"Yes, Sovereign."

With that, Zhuqiaomon left his palace. He had to arrange a crisis meeting with Azulongmon and the other Sovereigns. If his Devas, the Tamers and all else failed, he swore he'd find a way into the human world himself and fight the Dark Masters directly. He would be deleted before being imprisoned again…

****

Digimon Supercarrier

The corridors in the carrier were over double the usual size in height and width, though as Matt pointed out, they'd have to be to handle Champion and Ultimate digimon. They were also, fortunately, devoid of any digimon at the moment apart from their partners.

"They must all be in the docking bay unloading," Barret guessed. "But that won't last long."

"Rika, you still got your cellphone? We'd better try and contact Gennai again or we'll be forever going in circles."

Rika passed it to Tai who quickly got hold of Gennai again. "I've accessed the main computer on this carrier, Tai. You were right; it's practically a city above the city, and fully loaded it could carry 1000 digimon. It's like a mobile Spiral Mountain! Fortunately it's looks like it's only operating on a skeleton crew right now."

Henry was puzzled. "So Necromon and the others aren't here? That doesn't make much sense, does it? I thought he'd have wanted to be here when this came on-line."  
"I was wondering about that myself, Henry. Still, I've found a map and I think I can get you to the main control room. That'll probably be the best place to sabotage this carrier."  
"Alright, we are so going to party once we're there, right Guardromon?" Kazu grinned.

"A goofball like you knows how to party? That's a good one!" Terriermon quipped.

"Hey!"

"Will you two knuckleheads keep it down before you let every digimon know we're here?" Barret growled.

"Alright Tai, go straight ahead and take the first right…"

****

The MDB

Riley, meanwhile, was talking with a contact in the Japanese army.

"So it's not looking good, Captain?"  
"I'm afraid not, ma'am. We lost a lot of good men yesterday. Colonel Hiroki and General Sato are rebuilding our forces quickly but they're succeeding only because the digimon haven't followed up on their attack. Right now we're living on a wing and a prayer!"

"Well, we're trying to hurt them as we speak, hopefully they can slow things down until we can think of something."

"The government has something in mind already."  
"What? What do you mean?" Riley was very confused now.

"Yamaki transmitted the Juggernaut plans to them and they're planning to execute a more powerful version of it by coupling it to a new experimental hydrogen reactor. The effect should cover all of Japan…"  
At this point Janyu, Henry's father, looked up from his work in alarm. "That would be disastrous! I've run some tests on the program. If it runs perfectly then it'll work in theory, but if it's corrupted by means of a virus or even a radio transmission it'll overload and feed back on itself, and if it's coupled to a hydrogen reactor…"

"Good grief! You're sure of this?"  
"Positive, and if Necromon's studied this data I'm sure he'll know it too."

A nasty thought struck Riley. "Captain, has this plan been discussed openly over the airwaves?"

The same nasty thought struck the Captain. "I'm afraid it has, ma'am."

"Right, chances are he knows already," Riley groaned. "Tell your leaders to switch all communications to this frequency. According to Gen…my associates, Necromon isn't monitoring it yet."

"Understood. I'd better sign off before they trace this transmission too. Good luck."  
"To us all," Riley muttered as she cut the link.

"What's going to happen if they use this Juggernaut thing?" Kenta asked.

"Something very bad, I think," Janyu replied. "Let's hope the army stops those idiots before they make a big mistake!"

****

Digimon Supercarrier: command deck

"Alright, Tai. The bridge should be straight ahead now. If you're going to bring down this carrier, your best chance is from there."  
"Got it, Gennai. Come on, let's move it!"

"Tai, look out!" Matt had seen the red beam at ankle level. But Tai hadn't and…

****

Docking bay

Arachnomon knew what the alarm meant; humans had breached the carrier. Those humans could only be the Digidestined too. 

"All Mechanorimon launch now. If they somehow get off this carrier, make sure they don't do it alive!"

Gennai cursed. He had no choice but to launch along with the rest. He contacted Tai again. "Tai, there's some heavy company coming your way…"  
  
**The bridge**

The carrier's bridge was a large two level room with a huge window with a good view out over the city at one end (if not for the mist) and multiple consoles, viewscreens and levers around the room. Unlike the cargo containers, the controls were designed so anyone could operate them, not just Hahgurumon. 

Cid, being the mechanical expert, was trying to do as much damage as possible as Tai listened to Gennai. 

"…and since I'm outside I can't pick you up now."  
"Then we'll make our own way out, Gennai. Back us up whenever you can."

"I think I've got it, Tai," Cid grinned. "Pull that lever there, would you?"

Tai did so and the carrier shook and then started moving. Cid pulled a few more levers of his own and then stepped aside. "Barret?"  
"Right." Barret raised his gun arm and blew the controls to pieces.

"What did you just do?" Takato asked.

"I just took the inertial dampeners and safety systems off line and increased the ship to full speed. Without them it's only going to be a matter of time before the reactor goes or this piece of &$!%! shakes itself to pieces!"

Henry wasn't convinced. "Can't they fix it?"

"Probably but not in time. We've just smashed the main controls and they've no idea what we've done yet. By the time they do…"  
"Guys, we've got company!" Kazu warned.

"Grenade Destroyer!"  
"Pyro Sphere!"

Guardromon and Guilmon knocked down a Tyrannomon and Drimogemon that first came down the corridor but others were following up behind.

"How many of your digimon can fly?" Matt asked Takato.

"Terriermon and Renamon can at Ultimate level," Takato answered. "Guilmon can't though."

"Alright, get him back here. We can't have him digivolving in that case."  
Rika pulled out her digivice. "We're up, Renamon. Don't disappoint me!" 

"Terriermon! Time to rumble!"

I'm with ya, Henry!"  
Digi-modify! Matrix Digivolution Activate!

Barret and Cid were right behind Taomon and Rapidmon as they went out to head off the digimon horde.

"Now how are we supposed to get out of here?" Agumon worried. "That was the only way out."  
"I've never heard of a bridge that didn't have at least two ways out of it," Tai assured him. "We'll just have to find where the other way is."

"I've found it, Takato," Guilmon had found a hatch on the other side of the bridge. "Now, let's see, push to open…"  
"Guilmon, wait!" Takato's warning came barely in time as Guilmon opened the hatch and almost stepped into open air!

Matt and Gabumon managed to pull him in before he went for his first and last flying lesson.

"Phew, that was a close one, next time I'll wait till there's a bus!" Guilmon shivered.

"Heheheh, predictable as ever, Digidestined!" 

Everyone looked around in shock until they realised that the voice was coming from _outside_ the hatch, and then a pair of great spider legs protruded through the door. Arachnomon, thinking they might use the emergency hatch, had crawled over the outside hull of the carrier. He hadn't been disappointed. Now he pulled himself in to confront Matt and Takato. He hadn't seen Tai or Agumon who had fallen back to the rear.

"Stupid of you to think you could invade us. Now I'll send you to meet your dead friends!"

"You mean us?" Tai and Agumon came out of the shadows. 

Arachnomon was taken aback. "YOU! But you're dead!"

"You took the words right out of my mouth," Tai glowered and warp digivolved Agumon.

Now faced with Wargreymon it was Arachnomon who was afraid now. He'd bargained on facing one potential Mega at most and had banked on taking out Matt before that was a problem. Now he was staring at death.

"W...wait! You Digidestined fight fair right? You can't destroy me like this, it isn't a fair fight!"  
"That didn't stop you from killing Dad's friend!" Henry said, enraged.

"Or the people in the city," Wargreymon was no more forgiving. "We fight fair when the opponent deserves it, Arachnomon. You and your masters do not, the only thing you deserve is this…Mega Claw!"

Arachnomon screeched in pain as the attack nailed him. He wasn't deleted instantly but he was barely holding on and it was just a matter of time.

Henry turned back to his partner. "Alright, let's get out of here! Rapidmon, can you block the corridor?"   
"Can I say momentai, Henry? Rapid Fire!"  
Taomon followed up quickly. "Talisman of Light!" 

The combined shots did the trick and brought the roof of the corridor down. 

Matt warp digivolved Gabumon to Metalgarurumon and Barret tagged along with him for the ride. Cid joined Tai on Wargreymon's back whilst Takato and Guilmon were carried by Taomon and Rika inside her Talisman Spell. Kazu hopped on Guardromon as he prepared to fire his rocket jets.

"Go ahead…and flee back…to your hole, Digidestined. Your victory…means nothing in the long run," Arachnomon wheezed. He may have been on his last legs but he was grinning insanely.

"What do you mean?" Tai had a sinking feeling about this.

"Lord…Necromon will avenge me and this carrier a millionfold, fools. Enjoy your victory…whilst you can." Arachnomon gasped one final time and then dissolved into bits of data.

"What was that all about?" Takato wondered.

"Less lip, more zip! This place is coming apart!" Kazu warned.

Taking heed of his warning they all fled out of the escape hatch. Luckily the mist was thick so they slipped out unseen, except for 2 Mechanorimon who stumbled across them.

"Let's take them!" Rapidmon was eager for more action. He didn't get it though since one of the Mechanorimon blasted the other one out of the air.

"Gennai, good to see you!" Matt's mood had improved tenfold. This time everyone was going to make it.

"You too, Matt. You all did amazingly well, that should be a setback for them."

"I'm not so sure, Gennai," Tai's doubts still lingered as he filled Gennai in on what had happened.

"The carrier was over half empty? And no sign of the Dark Masters anywhere?"

"Right," Barret said. "The city below looked deserted too. They must have all gone somewhere else."

Gennai agreed. "But where? Hold on." He checked the map of the carrier he'd obtained earlier looking at it in more detail this time. "Please let me be wrong…OH NO!"

Rika didn't like the sound of that. "What is it?"

"The name on this plan: Advanced battle carrier #5!"

"5?" Henry then realised in horror. "That's where they've all gone! Aboard the 4 other carriers that were built…"

"…before we got here," Takato finished in despair.

Gennai wasted no time. "Back to the MDB fast, we've got to get everyone together and find out where they've gone. I've feeling thousands of lives might depend on this!"  


****

Digimon Command Carrier 1

Necromon and his main task force were miles away from West Shinjuku by now. The constructions of his massive stealth carriers had gone faster and better than he thought and they'd been able to leave early that morning. He'd have rather waited until the next night as they were invisible to sensors but not human eyes, but Metalseadramon and most of his troops were impatient to move, so he'd made sure to ascend above the clouds to a very high altitude.

"Transmission from Carrier 4, my lord."

The image of Metalseadramon appeared on one of the screens. "Are we at the target yet? I need something to blow up!"

__

Speaking of which…Necromon rolled his eyes as he listened to Metalseadramon's complaining. "No we aren't yet. We should be there in half an hour, assuming the humans don't do us a favour before then."

"A favour? What are you talking about?" Daemon appeared on another screen. He was in command on Carrier 2.

"You should try listening in on the human government's frequencies, Daemon. It gives a lot of information along with a good laugh."

"Can't you just give me the abridged version now?"

Necromon did, along with the strategy he had for countering their plan.

"It's brilliant. If that occurs, we won't even have to use the army at all!"

"Yeah, but I won't get any action!" Metalseadramon again.

"You're not thinking, Metalseadramon. Tokyo is practically on the coast. Once it falls you can get back in your element with your aquatic Doom legion and wreak all the havoc you like out there. All part of my plan."

Necromon cut the connection before he received any more complaints. He had enough to think about in the next half an hour as it was.

"Are the transmitters fully operational?"  
"They're ready, my lord. We're listening in on the humans more than ever now."  
"Good. Make sure you keep alert. Timing will be everything on this operation."  
"My lord, another transmission from West Shinjuku."  
"Finally, I was starting to think Arachnomon had got lost. Put him on."

But Necromon was in for a shock. A Tyrannomon appeared on the screen instead of Arachnomon.

"What is this? What has happened to Arachnomon? And where's the fifth carrier?"  
The Tyrannomon felt grateful that he was on a screen instead of reporting in person. "Both destroyed, my lord. It seems the Tamers and some of their friends sneaked aboard. Arachnomon fought them and lost and they sabotaged the carrier's safety systems so it literally shook itself apart. The pieces are a few miles west of the city."

Necromon screamed in pure fury and brought his fist down on a nearby service panel…and smashed it open in doing so. 

"Necromon, calm yourself," Daemon had overheard. "We must stay focused on the task at hand."  
Necromon came to his senses. "Yes, you're quite right. He turned his attention back to the Tyrannomon. "With Arachnomon gone, you are in command. That city is useless to us now. Assemble all the remaining troops there and use the contingency plan. Rendezvous with us whenever you can make it."  
"At once, my lord!"

Necromon clenched his right fist in rage. Arachnomon had been a good and faithful servant over the years and, while his loss meant nothing in the grand scheme, it was still a bitter blow for him. Well so be it. In a short time the Digidestined, Tamers and this world would pay a heavy price…in human blood.

****

The MDB

"Wow, you really rocked!" Kenta said in admiration when he heard both teams' stories. 

"We're the coolest Tamers ever. Of course we rocked!" Kazu grinned.

"And you're saying we didn't?" Davis retorted. 

"Can't you two shut it for even a second?" Cloud muttered. "You're giving us all migraines!"  
Gennai had brought everyone back from Odaiba on this occasion. He figured that they'd need all they had in the Tamer World now, chances were that Necromon would retaliate in some fashion for his recent losses, so now all the Digidestined were now with the Tamers. Davis had introduced himself in typical fashion.

"Hi, I'm Davis. I'm sure you've heard of me!"  
"Yeah, sort of. But don't let it go to your head, dude," Kazu had fired back. Those 2 had been duelling ever since.

Izzy had been having the most prodigious time of his life, first examining the MDB and then the Tamers' digivices and digimon. 

"I don't know what to study first and I don't know that I'm going to get the time. Why do all the most exciting discoveries happen in the middle of a crisis?!"

Janyu and Riley had promised to take him under their wing and help him with whatever research he wanted to do.

Cloud had informed the Tamers of Beelzemon. "Are you sure you don't know this digimon?"  
Takato was adamant. "Positive. Apart from Daemon we've never fought a Mega before and we've never heard of this guy." 

"Well he seemed to know you. In fact it's safe to say he's really got it in for you. You'd best keep alert, I gave him a beating but I'm not sure I killed him."

After the reunion though, things had grown more sombre. Everyone knew that even with their success, victory was still a long way off, especially with 4 more stealth carriers to deal with.

Riley, Gennai and Janyu were frantically trying to contact General Sato and the government in Tokyo. Gennai had gone ballistic when he'd heard of their plans.

"Do these fools ever use their brains? We know the Juggernaut is dangerously unstable, we know that Necromon knows about it and I'm sure he's been listening in on the government's transmissions. So what do they think they're playing at?"

"Don't ask me," Riley replied bitterly. "Even Yamaki couldn't understand them on most days. I think the trouble is they're too high on their own power and self-confidence. Just because nothing on earth can touch them, these digimon can't either. They probably still think digimon are nothing more than dumb animals too."

Gennai shook his head in dismay. "Necromon is far from that, he's very intelligent and a master strategist. We've got to contact them and shake some sense into them."

The first person they'd got hold of was General Sato, an ageing general with greying hair, and it looked like he'd aged a lot in the last few days alone considering all the losses they'd taken.

"Thanks for speaking to us General."  
"No problem, Miss Otori, it's good to hear a voice of sanity in all this chaos. I'm in the process of pulling my troops back to Tokyo…"

"Has there been any attempt to evacuate Tokyo?"  
"No, none that I know of."  
Riley gritted her teeth. She hated doing this but knew what had to be done. There was nowhere near enough time for the army to do much there now.

"General, listen to me. Don't go to Tokyo, get your troops as far away as you can. We believe the government's plan is compromised and if it goes wrong it could destroy the city completely."  
"But my orders were to…"  
"Forget those orders, General! I'm advising you as the new head of Hypnos, we can't afford to lose our remaining forces on what's nothing more than a desperate gamble. Trust me on this."  
He seemed to pause for a minute before replying. "All right then. I'll do as you ask. But it's both our heads on the block if you're wrong."  
"If I'm not wrong, General, it'll be a lot worse than that."

****

A secret lab on the edge of Tokyo

The government lab was almost a carbon copy of Yamaki's facility in West Shinjuku but it was a lot larger. The final preparations for the Juggernaut's use were almost complete. Moro Harada, Yamaki's boss, was now in charge of the whole operation here and he was currently in a full-blown argument with the chief scientist.

"Sir, I urge you to reconsider. This program may have been tested on a small scale but we have no idea of the possible result of coupling it to this reactor. The results could be catastrophic! How can you even consider using it given a risk like that?"

"The point is how can we not? This is a matter of national security, if not world security. We both know the truth of what really happened in West Shinjuku, Doctor. This is the only way of ensuring victory over these monsters. Yamaki assured me this program was flawless and I had no reason to doubt him before we lost contact…"

"Even Yamaki never meant for it to be used this way…"  
"There's no more time for debate, Doctor. For all we know they could be on their way here right now. We begin in 2 minutes."

****

The MDB

Riley was still desperately trying to contact Tokyo when Necromon's face appeared on one of the screens.

"Greetings humans!"

"Necromon, what…"  
"That's on national TV," Gennai realised as he was flicking switches. "He's on every channel!"

"Guys, get in here!" Janyu called.

Everyone else piled into the MDB. 

"What is it? Oh hell…" Tai and everyone soon noticed what it was.

"In case you don't already know me, my name is Necromon. I command the digimon force that is engaged in a war against your pathetic race and I am here to set the record straight. The stories of an 'earthquake' in West Shinjuku are complete falsehoods, unless one considers a digimon invasion to be an earthquake. The people I killed and the ones who escaped the city were not hallucinating. You humans created us long ago and you arrogantly thought you could keep us under your heel ever since. Well no longer, the creations have now surpassed the creators. I'm sure many of you are thinking and hoping that this is a big hoax, well I'm happy to say it is not. I can assure you we are very real, and to prove it, I'm going to give you another demonstration of this. In a few more minutes, once my forces are in position, I shall attack Tokyo City with everything I have and wipe it from the face of this disgusting world of yours. The government thinks it has the power to stop us with their amusing little toys…they think wrong! But if they're listening to this, then feel free to use them, my comrades and I will still be the ones laughing last!"

Janyu quickly saw what Necromon was up to. "He's trying to goad them into using Juggernaut! Riley, you've got to get through to them."  
"I'm trying!"

****

Secret lab

Harada was fuming as he watched Necromon's broadcast. It was bad enough that he'd ruined the government's cover story on the air but then threatening Tokyo and mocking him at the same time?

"That smug son of a…he won't be laughing once we're done with him! Activate Juggernaut immediately!"

"Sir, I don't like it. It's like he knows about Juggernaut and he _wants_ us to use it. Something's wrong!"

Harada wasn't listening. "Activate it now!"

****

Digimon Command Carrier

"They're activating it, my lord!"

Necromon smiled coldly. _So predictable, humans are so easily led. _He was still 'live on air' so he merely nodded at the Hahgurumon who knew what that meant. 

"Activating Juggernaut buster now."

Necromon had attached heavy dish transmitters to his battle carrier. They had already enabled him to pirate a satellite and broadcast live on air. Now a second signal was sent out, relayed off the satellite, beamed straight at Tokyo and straight into the Juggernaut core…

****

Secret lab

At first Harada had every reason to smile broadly. Juggernaut had achieved full power in short order and its effect now covered all of Tokyo and was starting to spread beyond. _Just a matter of time and that gloating moron will be deleted along with his whole army!_

However, Harada was about to learn who the real moron was. One of the technicians suddenly became alarmed.

"Sir, there's something wrong. The program's being corrupted by some kind of signal over the airwaves, I can't lock it out!"  
Things then went from bad to worse. "The program's collapsing but the reactor power's increasing...it's overloading!" 

Harada was no longer smiling. "Don't just stand there, shut it down!" 

"It's not responding, it's going to…"

At that exact moment Moro Harada, the technicians, the lab along with Tokyo City and all the millions of people in it were obliterated as the reactor blew its stack. A clean shockwave of energy tore through buildings and flesh alike leaving a trail of devastation in its wake. The explosion was clean, there was no dirty radiation left behind but that was hardly any comfort. Necromon's promise had been fulfilled: Tokyo had ceased to exist.

TO BE CONTINUED…


	9. Mission of Mercy Part 1

Sorry I'm taking so long over this fic, but I'm up to my neck in work and fighting off writer's block at the same time. It's going to be a long one but rest assured I'm going to finish it! Dark Empire 

**9: Mission of Mercy (Part 1)**

The MDB 

"That was merely a beginning, humans," Necromon continued coldly on the screen. "As you can see, Humanity's day on this world has ended, digimon now rule supreme. You'll be hearing from us again…very soon."

There was a stunned silence for a minute.

"Somebody tell me this isn't happening!" Davis finally broke the silence.

Gennai ran several checks. "It happened alright. Satellites registered a massive explosion, miles wide, in Tokyo. Clean with no fallout but Tokyo no longer exists."

Riley gasped. "There were millions of men, women and children living there!"  
"Not anymore…" Gennai concluded sadly.

Choking back tears, Riley started trying to get hold of General Sato again. Jeri, Kari and Yolei were less successful and had to be escorted out by Tai and Cloud. Everyone else was barely holding it back too; this probably qualified as the worst day in their lives. The strain was certainly showing on Tai as he sat around a campfire later.

"We did the best we could, Tai," Takato tried to reassure him. He didn't do very well.

"It wasn't good enough, Takato," was the cold reply.

"We did some good. We actually hurt them!" Kazu joined in but none of it was getting through to Tai.

"It won't help those people tonight."

"Tai!" Tai looked round at that voice. It was Cloud's. "Don't you remember anything I taught you? You can't beat yourself up for things you're not responsible for."

"But…"  
"But what? You could have stopped this invasion before it begun? No, you couldn't, as you didn't know about it in time. You couldn't stop it in West Shinjuku either, you got blown out of the air, remember? You've given your all and then some. You can't be held responsible for the actions of a few fools in Tokyo who brought this on themselves…and a few million other innocents unfortunately. The real one to blame is Necromon and he's still out there."

"He's right, Tai," Red XIII joined them by the fire. "We can't help those people now but we can still kill him and stop him from doing this to others."  
"Yeah sure," Tai didn't sound entirely convinced but he wasn't as cold. "I just hope we can actually do that…"

Digimon Command Carrier 

Necromon smiled as he finished his broadcast and opened communications to the other carriers. 

"Well, everyone? What do you think now?" 

"Magnificent," Daemon replied.

"Please tell me this isn't a dream!" Metalseadramon added. "It's so good it's just like one."

"It is no dream!" The cold voice of Machinedramon actually sounded emotional for once. "The humans have finally learned who the dominant race really is."

"True Machinedramon, for the humans it's the biggest living nightmare; one from which they'll never awaken! Now we must build on our success. Metalseadramon, take your carrier to the remains of Tokyo. You should be able to access the seas and waterways from there. Cause whatever havoc you like."

"Finally, you've just made my day!"

"The rest of us can restart our main offensive. We will head to the north first. Standing orders are simple: burn everything you encounter and scatter the ashes!"

Necromon felt a surge of exhilaration as he signed off. This was the best day of his life. With a single action, he'd surpassed the achievements of all the dark digimon who had come before him. By the time this was over he and his fellow commanders wouldn't just be Dark Masters, they'd be Dark Emperors ruling an empire that would span the entire digital realm, the human worlds and perhaps beyond. All he had to do first was to finish conquering this world, and after today he didn't see that as being too difficult.

The MDB: east of Hiroshima 2 days later 

Riley switched on her recorder once again. 

"Personal journal of Riley Otori: November 28th. The Digimon War, as it's become known, continues to worsen with each passing day. The destruction of the Juggernaut and Tokyo has destroyed any hope of a swift end to the war. The invaders have overrun 6 more towns in the last 2 days alone. Wherever they strike, nothing is left alive. Civilians, animals…even children; people who are plainly incapable of fighting are targeted and killed. Surrender to these monsters is obviously no option, but having said that, we are struggling to find any actual options. We are fighting an enemy that has us outgunned, outsmarted and pretty much outclassed. I can only hope that my meeting with General Sato later today produces something worthwhile…"  
"Riley, there's a couple of army trucks coming up the road," Janyu's voice came from outside the MDB.

_Good timing. Riley shut off the recorder and went out with Gennai and the others as the 2 trucks pulled up alongside. The General, however, was nowhere to be seen in the front of either of them. A dark haired man in his late thirties jumped down to meet her._

"Miss Otori? I'm Colonel Hiroki. I'm afraid the General couldn't make the meeting. He's got his hands full with a lot of things right now but he's asked me to take his place."

"All right, Colonel. But tell me, is it as bad out there as I've been hearing?"  
"I don't know what you've been hearing but I'd say it's probably worse than that. Ah, these must be the Tamers I've heard so much about."  
The Tamers were taken aback. "How come you know about us?" Takato asked.

"On the grapevine mostly. Yamaki did send a few reports about you to the government before the invasion and we've heard some stories from West Shinjuku survivors. You've done us proud, it's safe to say that without you we'd have no chance at all."

Riley broke in. "All well and good, Colonel. But we still have no chance unless we can stop this invasion. So far all we've done is hinder it a little."

"Well, I'll bring you up to date with all the Intel we have and we'll take it from there. Are all of you here now?"

Kari looked around to see that Tai, Matt and Cloud were missing. "No, not all of us."  
"Go find them, Kari. We should all be in on this," Gennai advised.

"I can start with one piece of good news," Hiroki went on. "You'll never guess who we picked up among all the survivors."

Several people were emerging from the army trucks. Riley was very familiar with one.

"Talley! Is that you?"

"Riley? I thought you were dead! After I heard about Yamaki and what happened in the city…"

"I thought the same about you!"  
Janyu recognised the others too. They were the rest of his 'Monster Maker' team. "Dolphin? Barrell? Are all of you in there?"

"Tao! How many lives you got man? Hey, where's Daisy?"

Janyu's face darkened. "She…didn't make it. Nor did Yamaki. We're on our own now."

"Not entirely," Gennai said. "We'll be needing you a lot in what's to come."

"Who are all of these guys?" Davis was feeling a little left out.

"They're Dad's old college friends. They studied digimon a long time ago," Henry explained. 

"And Talley was my co-worker at Hypnos, before it went down that is," Riley added.

"Well, now you're all together again, hopefully you can do a lot more to help," Hiroki said. "And we need you more than ever now…"

On a mountain top in the Digital World 

Zhuqiaomon arrived at the prearranged meeting place to find all the other Sovereigns waiting for him. 

"I'm glad to see everyone took my warning seriously…" Zhuqiaomon began.

"We all know of the dire threat facing us, Zhuqiaomon," Azulongmon informed him. "You're not the only one with agents in the human world."

"Aye, and you're both right about it," Ebonwumon, the turtle like Sovereign chipped in. "Having those Dark blackguards back is a catastrophe!"

"I've already begun preparations for countermoves against them," Zhuqiaomon said. "My Devas are rounding up every digimon they can muster and I'm preparing to give the humans a boost in power…"

The tiger Sovereign, Baihumon, was shocked at that. "And I thought you hated humans, Zhuqiaomon."  
"Do not mock me!" Zhuqiaomon snapped. "You know full well my views about humans. But I can't afford to let that jeopardise the whole Digital World."

"I'm certainly relieved you see it that way," Azulongmon said warmly. 

Zhuqiaomon was too worried to care however. "We do have one problem. How do we get our forces to the humans' world without alerting Necromon and his army? Travel there has been erratic at the best of times. It was a miracle that I could get my Devas there at all.  We can not afford that now." 

Azulongmon was ready for this. "I have a plan to handle that."

With a gesture, Azulongmon revealed 2 figures imprisoned in a blue force field. One was a vicious man sized digimon that looked like he could take on all of the Sovereigns, with or without the force field. The other was a boy dressed in rugged grey clothing and holding a dark blue Tamer digivice. 

"What's the meaning of this, Azulongmon?" Ryo Akiyama glowered at the Sovereigns. 

"Forgive me, Ryo. But I couldn't afford having Cyberdramon attack everyone here while we talk. We need your help desperately…"

"You've got a funny way of asking for help," Ryo was still annoyed but he took the point. Cyberdramon was hard to handle even on the best of days. "And what could I possibly do for you?"

"Simple human," Zhuqiaomon replied, now knowing what Azulongmon had in mind. "Open a way to your world for an army of ours…"

**The MDB**

By now, everyone had been reassembled at the MDB so Riley and Hiroki could give an update on the situation. Simply put, it was grim.

"Japan is now under martial law," Hiroki had begun. "With the loss of Tokyo and practically the entire government, we had no choice. That makes it easier for us to call the shots without interference from anyone else but, as everyone knows, things aren't good."

He quickly produced a map of Japan. 

"The main bulk of the digimon force seems to be heading north now towards Hokkaido, destroying and killing everything they come across. In addition they've also got access to the open sea, satellite sweeps have detected activity on the eastern coast, so we can now expect attacks on the shipping lanes and anywhere that's got a port or a harbour."

The pain in Takato's head suddenly got worse. "Man! And there's nothing we can do to stop any of this?"

"Not immediately," Riley said gloomily. "You know the facts. Apart from you anyone or anything that goes up against them loses and you can't be everywhere at once."

"There's another reason I came here today," Hiroki went on. "You're completely free to refuse but we need your help desperately with an upcoming operation."

Davis spoke for everyone. "If we can help anytime or anywhere then we're up for it!"

Hiroki nodded gratefully and turned back to the map. "It's an escort job. As you might have guessed, these attacks have produced a lot of panic and a lot of refugees. People who've escaped from destroyed towns and people who are simply running, afraid that they'll be next. Until yesterday we were running convoys to evacuate them to Kyushu Island."

"Until yesterday?" Cid had caught that part with interest.

Hiroki nodded grimly. "Yes. Yesterday 2 of our convoys were hit and wiped out…along with 5000 people that were travelling on them."

Everyone gasped in horror, dismay and anger. "How?" Tai growled.

"They were hit by a digimon group from the air," Hiroki revealed. "They went straight through our guards and gunships like they weren't even there. They didn't have a chance!"

Gennai cursed under his breath knowing he should have seen this coming.

Davis was livid. "Attacking innocent people like that? That's just cold!"

"Also good strategy on their part," Cloud said. "Keeps the terror factor going. You know: 'we can hit you at any time, you only live at our sufferance'. Plus it keeps us on the defensive."

"It gets worse," Hiroki went on. "Due to those attacks we now have a large number of refugees bottled up near the front line. The local police and army are refusing to run any more convoys until we can guarantee their safety, which alone we can't do. But if we don't move them in the next day or so there's a good chance that some of the digimon ground force could swing around from the North, surround the refugee camps and completely annihilate them. You can imagine what effect that will have."

Everyone did and it didn't bear thinking about.

"Alright, so what do you want us to do?" Rika asked.

"It's a hell of a gamble, I know, but we're going to try and evacuate everyone out of there at once in a few more convoys. We need you to provide cover when we do. You're the only ones who have any chance against these digimon."

"That sounds good in theory," Izzy said, already thinking things through on his feet. "But I don't like the idea of moving everyone at once. With that many people we'd have to use different routes for each convoy and we'd be spread out all over the place. If one group got hit hard…"

Izzy trailed off and left the rest unsaid.

Hiroki nodded comfortably. "I know. I don't like this plan either and I said as much to General Sato. But he feels we've got no choice. But you don't have to do this if you don't want to…"

Henry snorted. "Who are you trying to kid? Of course we have to! If we don't those people will be sitting ducks!"

Everyone else agreed instantly.

"You've got your answer, Colonel. I'm not happy about this but I'll go along with it too," Gennai said. "But we'd like more information. Have you any idea what kind of digimon these attackers are?"

The Colonel brought out a digimon card in answer to that. "I never thought we'd end up using game cards for intelligence, but I've had my men study these. There were one or two survivors from the second attack. They say the bulk of the attackers were this type."

Gennai looked at the card. "Airdramon."

"Well that sounds alright. They're only Champion level digimon, we should be able to handle those," TK said.

"Not so fast. There was another one, a much bigger one acting as leader," Hiroki warned. "The survivors were shown several cards but couldn't identify him."

"Couldn't they say what he looked like?" Gennai asked.

"They said he looked much like the Airdramon but much bigger with metal claws and tail." 

"Could be Megadramon or Gigadramon," TK guessed.

Tai disagreed. "Those 2 normally work together." 

"And they were among the cards we showed the survivors," Hiroki agreed. 

"Great. Another new player," Matt groaned.

"I'll search the digimon analyser and see if I can get any clues," Gennai promised. "Where and when does all of this start, Colonel? If you show us we'll make our own way there."

Hiroki pointed to a spot on the map close to the 'occupied zone'. "Here tomorrow at first light."

**Digimon Command Carrier**

Necromon stood in the docking bay as the mysterious digimon air leader arrived home. He was among the new breeds of digimon that Necromon had engineered in his breeding tanks. He was a lot like an Airdramon, having the same multi-colour scheme but he was bigger, he had metal claws and the end of his tail was also cold iron metal. His Howling Tornado attack blew enemies off course and often ripped the flesh off their bones, or if he was in the mood for a quick kill his Sky Rockets usually did the job. 

"Welcome home, Skydramon. I trust you've had a lot of fun over the last day or so?" 

"Hardly, it was too easy burning those humans," Skydramon grunted. "No challenge at all. I felt cheap! I want targets than can fire back; targets that I can take pleasure in fighting."

"You're about to get your wish," Necromon smiled coldly. "Come this way."

Necromon led Skydramon down several wide corridors to a briefing room where Daemon, Machinedramon and a battered and smoking Beelzemon were waiting. 

Necromon started the ball rolling. "Everything is going according to plan. Our main offensive is going well and Skydramon has wiped out a great number of fleeing humans as I hoped." 

"So our air legion did its job well," Machinedramon nodded in approval at Skydramon before looking coldly at Beelzemon. "Unlike some others I could name."

Beelzemon cursed inwardly at the implied rebuke. He'd survived the beating from Cloud at the castle and, wanting revenge, had travelled to the carrier as soon as he could. The Dark Masters, however, were not so enthusiastic about using him again given his dismal first performance and, since he knew he'd have no chance if they combined against him, Beelzemon hadn't felt brave enough to push the issue yet.

"We'll talk about that later, Machinedramon," Necromon also cast a frigid look at Beelzemon. "Right now we have another surprise for our enemies. The attacks on the convoys were a good first step."

"The first step of what exactly?" Daemon asked.

"Of dealing a heavy blow to the Digidestined and the Tamers. Actually, it is the Tamers I am targeting with this operation. Allow me to explain. Our agents report that the human army has approached the Digidestined and Tamers asking for their help tomorrow. This is just what I'd hoped for."  
"How is this such good news?" Skydramon broke in. "It'll be impossible to attack again with all the Digidestined and Tamers on guard duty!"

"Not as impossible as you might think, Skydramon. Since they're afraid of another major attack from us they'll have to move all the displaced humans tomorrow and that will be an immense task. They'll have to use different routes miles apart to get all the refugees away from us and that means they'll be spread apart…and vulnerable to a concentrated attack."

"True. But despite us eliminating Tai Kamiya they still have 2 Megas that we know of," Machinedramon warned.

"I would think they'll be too busy watching out for our ground forces," Necromon assured him. "The humans are concerned that we'll swing around from the North and surround them. The Digidestined will move their strongest there to counter that possibility, which leaves us with an opportunity. My spies haven't been able to get the exact formation of the convoys yet, but they do know that the Tamers will be travelling with the southernmost convoy."

"And it's them I'm after, right?" Skydramon grinned.

"Exactly. You'll take your _entire _attack force with you tomorrow across the sea and hit them from the South. While they set about hitting the convoy and distracting all other attention you will blast the Tamers out of existence. Of all our enemies they concern me the most as they still haven't reached their full potential. You will ensure that they never do."

As Skydramon left Daemon chuckled in approval. "Him and 25 Airdramon should make quite a show. But do you think it will be enough?"

"If they hit hard and fast enough then it should be. It's likely we'll lose most of them when the Digidestined arrive and hit back but the end result will be worth it, don't you think? And even if he fails, I have a plan in reserve that will certainly not fail."

"Hey, what about me? Send me in and I'll deal with those losers!" Beelzemon was really looking to redeem himself.

"Like you did at my castle?" Necromon replied sarcastically. "Until you gain some control, don't bet on dealing with anything!"

"But I'm a Mega, I'm stronger than them now. I…"  
Necromon cut him off in mid-sentence. "You don't get it, do you? Just having power is not the same as being strong! What good is power if you don't know how to use it? You lost that fight because you were newly digivolved and you didn't know what you were doing. How did you expect to defeat far more experienced opponents?"

Beelzemon had no answer to that.

Necromon softened his tone. "You have the potential to be a very great digimon. But I can't afford any loose cannons. Start training and learn how to use your new powers and then I'll let you back into the game. Understood?"  
Beelzemon was frustrated but he agreed. He really didn't have much of a choice. But mentally he swore that he would get even one way or another.

Necromon watched him go coldly. He'd never bargained on Impmon digivolving so far. Still, he'd destroyed other Megas before and what was done once could be done again if Beelzemon became too much to handle. 

His train of thought was derailed as Daemon came up to him with a wine glass. "I think a toast is in order, don't you?"  
Necromon smiled in reply as he took the glass and raised it. "Indeed. Here's to our victory and to the best dead Tamers in this world! HAHAHA!"  
  


TO BE CONTINUED…

  
  
  



End file.
